Adults In Charge
by Pixel and Stephanie Forever
Summary: Sequel to Children in Charge. 15 years have passed since the attempted takeover of the Federation by Section 31. When Spacedock is bombed, the blame is placed on Naomi. With the help of her friends and some old and new faces, she hunts the real bombers
1. The First Strike

**The First Strike**

Huge cargo containers formed gigantic mountains, and the man was careful to not knock into any of them. Being stored several high, they could do serious injury if they hit a person. He found the container he was looking for, and he opened it after pulling a small device from his pocket. Inside the container was an assembly of parts, and to this he added one more. The device lit up briefly and confirmed everything was in working order. In several days time, there would be an event of such proportions, it would take the entire Federation by surprise and shock. It was the only timed event, it was one of a series planned throughout Federation space. As the man left the cargo bay at Spacedock, he wished he could see the trigger for himself, but knew it would be well recorded to watch later.

# # # # #

"Attention on deck!" Naomi called. "Lieutenant Commander, get that chest stuck out this moment" and Mezoti stiffened to attention and stuck her chest out. This caused her unrestricted breasts to swing wildly in separate directions, only to fall flat against her chest with a dull slapping sound.

"Yes, Captain" Mezoti giggled. "Aye, Aye, Captain" and Naomi frowned at her.

"Oh that will not do at all" and she pushed her wife face down onto the bed. "I think a little discipline is in order" and, selecting a long and sturdy cane, she gave Mezoti six moderate smacks on the buttocks. "Now, Lieutenant Commander, think about that before you disobey my orders again" and Mezoti nodded carefully. Before Naomi could say a word though, Mezoti used her superior Borg enhanced strength to flip Naomi over so the positions were now reversed.

"Surprise" she laughed, and pointed a phaser at Naomi.

"This is mutiny, Commander Wildman" the trapped woman said.

"Write me up for Court-Martial" Mezoti said, and pressed the phaser between Naomi's legs and turned it on. Instead of shooting out phased energy, the chamber started to vibrate and Naomi started to moan in delight.

"Harder…" she panted. "I… I mean you should let me go, Mister, and I'll press for a light sentence in the stockade" put Mezoti simply increased the speed of the vibrations.

"The stockade?" she wondered aloud. "Being tied up? Now that just makes me as horny as fuc…"

"OH JESUS H CHRIST! _TURN IT OFF! TURN IT FUCKING OFF_!" shouted a voice. Naomi and Mezoti both started and looked to their right and saw that their computer station was switched on. On the screen were several members of the Starship Development and Test Program. Either they had put up a Jackson Pollack, or some of them had been sick on the walls.

"_We can't, Ma'am. The controls have frozen_" said a young voice. Starfleet had clearly tried to contact them, but being in the middle of their lovemaking games, neither of the pair had heard the calls. This meant the console operator using the override to activate the screen via remote.

"Hi…" Naomi waved weakly.

"_Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am_" said the first voice. A fresh faced Lieutenant looked as green as Alteran Whiskey. "_But we can't agree on how to go about the test schedule for the _Ark Royal" and Naomi sighed both in frustration and orgasm as she had left the 'phaser' inserted between her legs while she took the call.

"I'll be there in a couple of hours. Wildman out" and she cut the screen off.

"Bugger me senseless" Mezoti cursed. Over the years, she had come to know many human curses, plus a couple of Klingon ones to boot.

"Maybe later" Naomi said, carefully removing the phaser shaped vibrator from between her legs. They used the sonic shower to get cleaned up, dressed in their uniforms and then headed out the house to use their own personal shuttle – the _Delta Flyer_. Over the nineteen years or so since their return to Federation space, the ship had only required the normal overall periods, plus the normal swap out of parts that they had an ample supply of. The only change was that she now retrofitted with a state of the art Klingon cloaking device – a gift from Martok who was in his eighteenth year as leader of the High Council.

#

"Now you see the problem that we face, Captain" said the Lieutenant they had spoken to.

"Have you thought about re-routing the energy under the floor?" Naomi asked.

"No…" admitted the officer.

"Kids… Mezoti muttered from her seat. "They never learn" and Naomi rolled her eyes in silent agreement.

"Install extra cables under the flooring on Decks 2, 4, 6 and 8" she said to her staff. "Have them all leading down to the ship's battle bridge. In an emergency situation, it can power up a lot faster, so leave them in after testing is complete" and she glanced at her PADD. "I want the ship ready for her first impulse run by the middle of next week. Ensure that all teams know about this" and after talking about the testing of the _Ark Royal_, the meeting was over and Naomi and Mezoti went to their quarters aboard the main orbital complex at Utopia Planetia. The testing of the ship had been delayed whilst the lead ship of the class, the _HMS Nelson_, had the warp nacelles replaced after they were found to be insufficient in handling the stresses caused by Warp travel. The ships of the _Nelson_ class were unique in that they didn't carry the standard _USS_ prefix. A number of Starfleet, mainly the ones coming from the United Kingdom, had argued that most of the fleet's capital ships were named after American vessels, so why not just build a couple with a _HMS_ prefix and be done with it? A compromise had been made where all the outside name plaques were given the standard _USS_ form, but the dedication plaque and everything else would be _HMS_. _Nelson_ was complete except for its nacelles being changed, _Ark Royal_ was structurally complete, but her warp core had not been powered up yet, and the _Falkland Islands_ was about 45% complete on her space frame. The plan was to take _Nelson_ out for a new test of the nacelles, and then return a few days before _Ark Royal_ was due for her first impulse trial runs. As Naomi and Mezoti relaxed and had a few drinks, things took a turn for the worse.

# # # # #

"Captain?" called a crewman. "I'm reading a massive power surge in the secondary cargo transfer bay" and the Commanding Officer of Spacedock came hurrying over to the crewman's station.

"Is it an engineering problem?" she asked. "Are the sensors malfunctioning?" but the crewman replied in the negative.

"Scanning now, Captain" and second later gave a string of curses. "Captain, sensors indicate a massive load of torpedoes just went active"

"In there? Shut them down"

"Unable to comply… Captain, there is literally nothing we can do. I estimate seven minutes until detonation"

"Can you beam them out into space?"

"There is some kind of shield in place" and the Captain took the swiftest decision under the circumstances.

"Override bay doors" she ordered. "Clear all starships to depart – forget the thrusters only rule. Launch everything. All hands abandon station! Repeat: all hands abandon station" but it was too little too late. By the time the first ships got to the now fully open bay doors, the torpedoes detonated and ripped off the bottom quarter of Spacedock – containing all of the power generators. With the loss of power, the mighty station began to slip out of orbit and enter the atmosphere.

# # # # #

"RED ALERT! ALL HANDS TO BATTLESTATIONS. RED ALERT! ALL HANDS TO BATTLESTATIONS" and the noise of the duty controller's voice yelling, plus the Red Alert klaxon, woke the pair up.

"Wildman to operations. What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"_Captain, somebody just bombed Spacedock. Its on all the fleet channels, plus every news net_" the controller said in a panic. Naomi flicked on the holoscreen and watched as the mighty space station fell to the ground.

"Chakotay's ghost" Mezoti breathed.

"Did anybody make it out?" asked Naomi.

"_A number of escape pods made it, and a lot of the shuttles and light freighters made it out too, but… the starships are trapped inside. They can't get out the doors because of the tumbling... There are nearly sixty thousand people on that station at the moment, Captain…_" the controller broke off into sobs at the images of the bodies being ejected by the secondary explosions – some did not wear suits.

"Crewman!" Naomi said sharply. "Contact all the medical personnel on every ship in the yard, plus those on the yards here and on the ground. Have them beamed directly to the _Nelson_, _Ark Royal_ and the _Trigati_. We're going to their aid, Wildman out" and with that, the two women jumped out of bed and put their uniforms on over their… attire. With three ships ready to depart right away, Naomi took command of the _Trigati _and ordered any other ship capable of flight in the ship yards to clear the dock and make their way to Earth. On her personal authority as a Starfleet Captain, she authorised both the use of Warp drive within the solar system, and breaking the warp 5 limit. Seconds later, they returned to normal space and began emergency rescue operations. Spacedock was still falling into the atmosphere in line with the gravitational constant, and sensors showed trapped people in the thousands of compartments aboard. Quickly sizing up the situation, the newly arrived ships concentrated on rescuing the trapped people and beaming them to safety. The ships trapped in the falling hulk evacuated using the escape pods and their own transporters. Once everybody was off them, computers began aiding in the evacuation by using the transporters themselves.

#

They had managed to save about a quarter of the occupants using their rescue methods, plus another couple of thousand off the trapped starships using the escape pods and shuttles. Although it was too large for it to be safely tractored, all the rescue ships used tractor beams to adjust the trajectory of Spacedock so it didn't hit a populated area. It fell into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and because of the sheer size of it, Naomi was sickened by the knowledge that people had drowned after impact. As it turned out, twelve managed to make it out using the escape pods' remarkable ejection speed, and another four had used a under repair shuttle's emergency transporter to beam to the water's surface.

"I'm going below" she said at last. "You have the bridge, Mr Hastings" and with that, she left the bridge and headed down to the enormous cargo bays which had been set up as makeshift Sickbays. Despite the best efforts of countless officers and crew, there was still an overwhelming smell of sickness and death. A mixture of medical personnel darted about tending to the wounded, and Naomi wondered what had made people bomb a target that was not doing anything hostile. Before they had burned up, Mezoti had beamed aboard some of the floating debris, plus pieces from Spacedock and had set to work in one of the _Trigati_'s laboratories analysing the debris. As it was still unclear if it was an actual bomb or a cloaked ship, the rescue ships remained at Yellow Alert. Naomi wondered the cargo bays offering a few words here and there before heading a the nearest head and throwing up.

"_Bridge to Captain Wildman_" came a voice.

"Wildman"

"_Captain, we have an incoming message from Starfleet Command_. _Code 47_"

"Confirm that Code 47"

"_Confirmed Ma'am. What do you want me to do?_" Naomi took a moment to think where she was.

"Send it down to Ship's Geo Lab 6" she ordered.

"_Aye, Ma'am. Transferring now. Bridge out_" Naomi left the head and went next door to take the call.

"_This is a Code 47 message. It is not to be repeated to another member of the crew unless deemed absolutely necessary. There will be no record of said transmission_" said the computer.

"Understood" Naomi replied.

"_Proceed with voice print analysis_"

"Wildman, Naomi Samantha. Captain, Utopia Planetia" Naomi spoke clearly and concisely. The screen blinked the security screen a few more seconds before the face of an Admiral Naomi knew well enough appeared. "Admiral Weinberg" she greeted the greying and thinning man.

"_Captain Wildman_" he replied. "_We have conducted an search through all of the records that were transmitted to Starfleet Command by the Spacedock CO before the download went offline. It seems that a number of torpedoes went active before destroying the bottom section – tearing it off completely. We have also gone over the distress beacons sent out by the starships still inside the main dock, and it seems a number of vessels left with secret orders in a period of four hours before the incident_" and Naomi nodded.

"Have we had any information as to who might have done this, Sir?" she asked.

"_Not yet, but you can be sure that we'll be getting a message of responsibility soon enough. One thing more, _Voyager_ was not among the ships that went down. According to sensor records, a number a people boarded her and told control it was being moved to Utopia for some heavy repairs, but once clear of the dock, it cut its transponder off and warped out of the system. We were going to send out a ship to chase it, but then this all kicked off_" and Naomi wondered what somebody would want with a museum vessel.

"What are my orders, Admiral?" she asked.

"_You are to take the most badly injured to Utopia for treatment on the base. We've recalled all of our Hospital Ships back to here on the double. Under the circumstances, we can not spare any vessels to go after these missing ships until much later. For all we know, this could be the work of an unknown power. Carry out your orders, Captain_"

"Aye, Admiral" and with that the screen blinked off. She sat down on a lab stool and tried to put together why this had happened. She was also concerned about the ships that had been stolen – all top of the line ships by some accounts. "Captain Wildman to bridge" she said, tapping her comm badge.

"_Bridge here_"

"Set course for Utopia Planetia – maximum warp" Naomi knew that at that speed it was a trip of seconds. It was seconds that could mean life or death for hundreds and thousands of people.

#

It was almost 12 hours after the attack when Naomi was able to verify that both Azan and Rebi were safe. She knew they had been on Spacedock overseeing the overall of the _Resolute_. As soon as she had their location, she sent the _Flyer_ on automatic pilot to pick them up and return them both to the shipyards. There was no news yet from Icheb, but this was most likely because he was beyond real time communication using standard comm systems. Naomi briefly wondered about hacking into the Pathfinder lab, but Reg Barclay was on holiday so she couldn't. The Doctor was on his way back from the Romulan homeworld on a fast shuttle, but he would not be back for several more days.

"We need to go after those bastards" Mezoti said.

"I agree" said Azan.

"As do I" added Rebi.

"But there are no ships capable of being launched" Naomi said. "The _Trigati_'s core was strained by the quick jumping around we were doing, and _Nelson_ isn't in any shape with the nacelles in their condition" she added. The four were in the quarters shared by Naomi and Mezoti, and they watched the reports coming in as the death toll rose ever higher.

"And the _Delta Flyer_ is not able to take on an entire fleet by itself" Rebi said, sipping from his synthale.

"Looks like we'll just have to sit this one out, and wait to see what happens" Naomi said with a trace of anger. She understood though that they had to keep every ship on its patrol route in case of an invasion. If the attack was a prelude to one, then ships pulled from one place could be on a wild goose chase and creating holes for the enemy to get through.

**A/N:**

**The Naomi/Mezoti scene is added at the request of XRaiderV17 who wanted a sex scene back in CIC 2. I hope he likes it, plus another shape a dildo can appear in!**

**Until Next Time**

**Regards**

**Pixel**

**PS: Thanks for all those who wished me well on my birthday**


	2. Grand Theft Starship

**Grand Theft Starship**

"Naomi!" Mezoti was shaking Naomi awake. "Wake up and get dressed" she said.

"Waz goink orn" asked Naomi through a sleepy mind.

"We decided to go after those ships" Mezoti said. She shoved a cup of coffee at Naomi, then left her to get dressed while she talked to the twins.

"Somebody tell me what is going on" Naomi said as she stepped through into the living area.

"We decided to go after those ships that were taken from Spacedock in the hours before its destruction" Azan explained.

"But Command said there were no ships available" Naomi was confused.

"None in commission…" Mezoti said. "We do have the _Hathaway_" and Naomi was beginning to understand. The _Hathaway_ was a very old _Constellation_ class ship that had been retired and was having parts removed before sent to the scrapyard for breaking up. The ship had been powered down, and was running on one of the many drydocks at Utopia Planetia's umbilical support.

"That is breaking our orders to stay where we are" Naomi said. "We could face a court martial and imprisonment and dismissed the service" she added. "I'm in, of course, so what is the plan?" and Mezoti smiled.

"We beam up to the right drydock and then simply walk onboard" she said. Naomi wondered for her wife's sanity.

"You propose that we take a starship with just four people?" she asked. "A starship that is most likely guarded" but Rebi shook his head.

"Most of the breaking people that were on the _Hathaway_ were sent to Earth to aid in the rescue operations, and the rest of them are all off shift" but Naomi was still sceptical.

"The six of us were just capable of managing _Voyager_ on our own" she told the other three. "However that was because she was very advanced for her time. The _Hathaway_ is nothing more then an oversized transport ship. She was only kept on the active list because of our losses due to the Dominion War" and at that moment there was the sound of the door chime going off. "_Wonder who that could be…_" she thought as Mezoti went to the door and opened it to reveal two women who looked familiar to Naomi.

"I am glad that you could get here" said Mezoti to the pair.

"Anything for _Voyager_'s Captain" said the human of the pair, and Naomi realised exactly who it was she was seeing.

"Denise! Rankush!" she greeted them with an enthusiastic hug each.

"Mezoti found us on the ground base, and when we asked her what she was doing, she told us everything. It only took a few minutes to decide" Di'et said, and she and Cannon pulled themselves to attention. "Commanders Di'et and Cannon reporting for duty" and both of them pledged themselves to helping chase of the renegade ships.

#

The bridge was running without lights, but the three former Borg drones used their enhanced vision to find the emergency lamps which enabled them to see the powered down consoles on the bridge. Azan and Rebi went down to the Engine Room to get started on bringing the warp core back online. A quick search of the decks revealed no other persons onboard, so Cannon went to the armoury to see what had been left in the way of fighting equipment. Di'et was with her which left Naomi and Mezoti holding an unpowered bridge.

"_Cannon to Wildman_" Naomi's comm badge went off.

"Wildman here"

"_They offloaded all of the torpedoes, but the phasers are appearing to be intact. I think they might have taken those once she was being broken up_" Cannon said. "_We'll attempt to check their operational ability once we have some power to the consoles_" she added, and at that moment the lights powered up to a dim illumination. The bridge's MDS also lit up a dull with a dull green outline of the _Hathaway_.

"_Azan to Naomi_" Azan's voice cut into the active loop. "_Rebi and myself have managed to get battery power working, however it will take us a little longer to get the core active again_" he added.

"How long, Azan?" Naomi asked.

"_At least 24 hours_" he replied. "_However I can override all of the safeties and do it in an hour_" and Naomi thanked him.

"_Captain? We need your help back on the drydock_" Cannon said.

"What do you mean?" asked Naomi. She wondered if Security was on its way to arrest them all.

"_We've located the torpedoes. They are stored in a room just off the main airlock. Di'et and myself are trying to manhandle them through onto the ship. Could you assist us?_" and Mezoti assured her wife that she could handle the bridge of a 100 year plus old unpowered starship. Naomi jumped down the rungs of ladders two at a time, and she rushed to the main airlock in the darkness of unlit corridors, with only the activated emergency lamp on her wrist providing any kind of illumination. The three of them picked up torpedoes and carried them onto the ship, and left them lying in the corridor. It was lit by the beams of two handlamps jammed between the two halves of a cabin door. They worked for some time before the main corridor lights lit up on the _Hathaway_ – indicating that the twins had outdone themselves on their estimate.

#

All was well as the technician conducted the latest security sweep of the ship yard. She was about to move away from the console when an odd reading caught her attention.

"Commander?" she called out. "The _Hathaway_ just powered up" and the duty Commander came over.

"Some of those work crews getting an early start on breaking the old girl up I expect" said the Commander.

"Yes, sir" replied the technician. "But in that case, why have they powered up her warp core and impulse engines?" and the Commander blanched and turned very pale.

"Get Security down there" he ordered, "And get Captain Wildman on the line" and a security squad was dispatched up to the _Hathaway_'s dock.

"_Mezoti to Naomi_" Mezoti called out on the active loop.

"Go ahead" Naomi replied.

"_Warp core is powering up slowly, and impulse is stan…_" she went silent.

"Mez?"

"_I think our secret is out_" Mezoti said. "_Security is on its way to arrest anybody they find on the ship. They'll be here in four minutes_" and Naomi, Di'et and Cannon all swore with venom. They lifted the torpedo into the airlock, and then rushed back to get another one. They were just getting a third when the turbolift doors at the far end of the airlock opened up and discharged a handful of armed security officers.

"RUN!" yelled Cannon, and the trio rushed towards the _Hathaway_ with the squad hot on their heels.

"Mezoti! We're out of time – stand by for departure" Naomi said.

"_Acknowledged_" came the reply. They ran straight into the bulkhead on the inside of the old starship and fell into one another. They picked themselves up as Naomi called Mezoti again.

"Mez! We're all on… close the airlock and break us away"

"_Understood_" came the reply, and the large round hatch rotated shut.

"_Detaching all connections_…" came Rebi's voice from the engine room. A deep rumble could be heard and felt as Rebi fired the explosives on the connection ports.

"Cannon, go help down in Engineering. Di'et you're with me!" Naomi said, and the group split and left the torpedoes and the lit lamps behind in the airlock corridor.

#

"Report!" shouted Naomi as she and Di'et rushed out a newly powered turbolift. Mezoti slid out of the helm as Di'et slipped _into_ it.

"We are floating free, and thrusters are at station keeping" Mezoti said. "A number of shuttles are getting orders to block us in" she added.

"Awaiting your orders" Di'et said.

"Take us out of here – one quarter impulse" Naomi said, gripping the Ops console.

"One quarter, Aye" and _Hathaway_ moved from her moorings and headed out the dock.

"_Warp drive is now operational, however we are limited to warp 3 until we can stabilise the core_" came Azan's voice.

"Understood" said Naomi. "Rankush. Set course 315 mark 226 – Warp 3" and within seconds, the _Hathaway_ left the shuttles trailing behind in her wake.

"Holding at Warp 3" Di'et said.

"Mezoti, status report" Naomi said, moving down to take the honoured and revered Captain's seat.

"Propulsion is working. Weapons are offline. Shields appear to be working. Life support is on all decks" Mezoti said.

"Bridge to Engine Room. Can you kill the _Hathaway_'s transponder please? No doubt Starfleet Command is tracking us now" Naomi said.

"_We'll get back to you_" Azan said, and closed the active loop.

"Signs of pursuit…?" asked Naomi.

"_Hogwarts_, _Galactica_ and _Stargate_ are powering up with orders to pursue" Mezoti replied, seating herself at the Ops console. The _Hathaway_ had last been given a computer upgrade nearly two decades ago, and so the systems were a little out of order and date.

"Time to intercept?"

"Assuming they go to maximum warp, about five minutes" came Mezoti's uncertain reply.

"Can we go any faster?" asked Naomi.

"_Warp 3 is the best you can get_" said Azan. "_The core is highly unstable as it is, and we have a redline on all major systems_" he added. This was not surprising given the fact the _Hathaway_ was well beyond her expected designed lifespan.

"_Hogwarts_ has cleared Utopia" Mezoti said.

"We need to hide someplace" Naomi ran through some places in her head.

"What about the graveyard at Wolf 359?" asked Di'et – bravely attempting to keep the old ship on its course.

"What do you mean?" asked Mezoti.

"Well there was a _Constellation_ class ship that was mainly intact, but a plasma leak ran through the ship and killed the crew. When rescue ships arrived to look for survivors, they left the wreckage as a kind of memorial. We could get in to the debris, power down everything and then wait for them to go look someplace else. Once they are clear, we'll sneak out on thrusters so they can't detect us" Di'et explained.

"Can we make it there at Warp 3?" asked Naomi.

"Doubtful" Di'et said.

"Naomi to Azan. Is there any chance that we can go any faster for a few moments? We need to make Wolf 359 or else this is entirely academic" and there was a slight pause as Azan considered things.

"_I will attempt to increase speed, but these engines are very old. We are redlined on most systems anyway. Rebi and myself are doing the best we can just to keep the SIF in working order_" he replied.

"Once we've got to the graveyard, we'll shut everything down and let the engines cool for a while" Naomi told him.

"_I shall attempt to get more out of these engines, but be prepared to lose some systems. Azan out_" and a few minutes later, the _Hathaway_ sped up and increased the distance between itself and the three pursuing vessels.

"Passing Saturn" said Di'et.

"Adjust course so that we pass close to it" Mezoti said. "The three that are following us will los…" the woman shut up suddenly and then let out a great yell. "Rankush – all stop!" and out of training, Di'et brought the _Hathaway_ to a halt. "Get us inside the atmosphere quickly" and she complied.

"Something you want to tell me, Mezoti?" asked Naomi.

"Well I was thinking that Saturn gives off a lot of radiation that puts off sensors. Even today, you need to boost sensor power to look for something close by" and Mezoti's explanation was easy to translate. They would enter the upper regions of Saturn and then make like a hole in the water. The ships giving chase would assume they put on speed and left their sensor range. With a quick burst of impulse, the _Hathaway _swung around into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant and shut down everything except low level shields and thrusters. Because the comm system was off, Naomi had swapped Mezoti for Rebi so that she could still talk to those three down below thanks to the implants the twins carried. The three ships that were following them passed right over the top and kept on going.

They waited for another three hours and then powered up and headed out of the system. They made it as far as the Sun when the _Hathaway_ lost all power and they coasted to a halt over the north pole of the sun.

"Well" remarked Naomi as she looked at the damage, "Has anybody got some tape?"

**A/N:**

**For those that know the name, the _Hathaway_ previously appeared as Riker's ship in the TNG episode "Peak Performance". The chapter title is a nod of the head to the Grand Theft Auto series, and also the name that some Star Trek fans apply to Kirk stealing the Enterprise. The tactic of dropping into the atmosphere is a tactic used by Riker back in his academy days in a simulated attack test.**

**A new chapter is heading your way with more adventure, more drama, and chapter 4 will have the return of a very deal friend.**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	3. You Can't Catch Me!

**You Can't Catch Me!**

The _Hathaway_ was showing exactly why she had been made into a transport ship soon after the war was over. Nearly all of her systems were redlined, they had no power except for what they rigged from hand held lights and limited supplies. Nonetheless, the group worked through the many hours and managed to jury rig the warp core. In order to not give the elderly core too much strain, they had no lights except on the bridge and engineering. Once it was working reasonably, they headed out of the system as quickly and quietly out of the system. Once they were beyond the detection range of the System Perimeter Sensor Net, they slowly ramped up the power until they got to warp 3.4 and left it like that. They were now a fugitive ship like those that had oddly left Spacedock without orders.

"Any idea where to go?" asked Di'et. "_Hathaway_'s last crew didn't do a good job in looking after her. We need to make the most basic of repairs before we get her into fighting shape" she added.

"I hardly think that we could take her into a repair yard and have Starfleet fix us up" Naomi said.

"I agree. By now, Starfleet Command will have our faces sent to every Starbase and station for lightyears around. We need a place that is trafficked very little, but has an adequate repair yard" Mezoti mused.

"I would suggest the Klingons" Rebi began, "But Chancellor Martok will only be able to do so much before he breaks his alliance to the Federation" he added, but Naomi broke into a broad grin.

"Lets go to the Klingons" she said. "I am a member of Martok's house. Any patrol will know me right away, and give us enough help to make it to quoins. Knowing Martok as well as _I _do, he'll give us a squadron of Vorchas by the end of day" and the others nodded.

"I would not take the _Hathaway_ above Warp 4" Azan warned. "The core is very unstable at the moment – even with most of the ship turned off. Getting to Klingon space will take us about five to six days at that speed" and there was a lot of thinking done.

"Right" said Naomi. "We'll head to Klingon space at Warp 3. I do not want to overheat the engines if at all possible. We'll leave the _Hathaway_'s transponder and running lights off. We'll make not outgoing calls until we are well over the border" she added.

"We have enough rations to last us a few days" said Cannon. "At least they never got round to removing those off the ship" and they all were thankful. With no power to most of the ship, it unfortunately meant the replicators were offline. Mezoti and Azan were hopeful that they could get it working in a short while though.

"One more thing before we split" Naomi said. "We're fugitives now. There is no rank to separate any of us. So you can all drop the 'Captain' and the 'Ma'am'. My name is Naomi – use it" and with that they split up.

#

"_Mezoti to the bridge_"

"Bridge. Allison here. Whats the matter, Mezoti?" she asked.

"_Just wanted to say that the galley is working. I can rustle us up some food if anybody wants some_"

"I could do with some sandwiches and coffee" Cannon replied.

"_Dehydrated protein cubes and water – coming right up_" said Mezoti, and she went off the line.

"Oh to be in England…" muttered Cannon, and she put her feet up on the rail surrounding the central pit on the bridge. Most starships of _Hathaway_'s age had had them removed, but her's had remained for one reason or another. To Cannon, it seemed a little bit odd to be sat in a mainly darkened bridge. Only the helm console was lit as well as one lone light in the bridge ceiling which cast just enough light to see with. She checked the helm for the fifth time that half hour just as Mezoti came up with a plate of sandwiches and black coffee for her.

"Ta da" she uncovered the sandwiches.

"How did you get the galley to work?" asked Cannon.

"I took out the circuits and wired them into a phaser power pack" Mezoti replied. "All you have to do is to remove the metal clip holding it all together and it deactivates" and it was an ingenious solution to the power problem. On the entire ship, only the lone bridge console and light, engineering, three sets of quarters and a lone turbolift shaft were powered. Outside, even the running and navigational lights were turned off – though this was more to remain as dark as possible to sensors then anything else.

"That's damned good coffee" said Cannon, sipping the hot black liquid and enjoying the soothing qualities.

"Well if you want anything else, just give me a call" Mezoti said, and she left the bridge and returned to the galley.

#

"I guess you couldn't sleep either" remarked Naomi as she padded barefoot into the galley. She had seen the light on and decided to see what was going on inside.

"I thought Allison could do with something to eat and drink" Mezoti said, and gave her wife a kiss on the lips.

"What is on the menu?" asked Naomi – rubbing the back of her neck to rid herself of an ache.

"Chicken sandwiches and coffee at the moment. Give me enough time, and I will be able to program the synthesiser with the correct settings" Mezoti replied. She was tapping out the sequence for Naomi, and they sat at the galley counter and ate and drank with gusto.

"Now that is the good stuff" said Naomi.

"It should be" said Mezoti. "I programmed the same blend pattern that Captain Janeway used to use. On other news, Rebi thinks he can rig one of those sonics to work. As we've all said before, the last crew didn't do a good job of taking care of the ship. It seems as if she was decommissioned because of her age and her list of needed repairs. All of the sonic showers are out of action, some decks refuse to take power from anywhere, one of the cargo bay doors refuses to lock… she was an old ship to begin with. Her Warp core is over 40 years old, and that's bloody old as you and I both know" Mezoti poured more coffee for herself.

"Well as long as it can last us until Klingon space" Naomi indicated the direction of travel with a half eaten sandwich. "After all, we are a renegade vessel heading towards a sovereign state. For all the Klingon border patrols could know, we're the first ship of an invasion force. Once we're safely over the border, we should break radio sile…" Naomi was cut off by Cannon's voice from up on the bridge.

"_All hands on deck! All hands on deck! Starfleet vessels approaching at high warp_"

"Azan and Rebi – this is Naomi. Get to the engine room. We'll need shields in a minute" Naomi called out.

"_Understood_" said Azan. Naomi and Mezoti raced from the galley and went round the saucer section until they reached the sole working turbolift shaft. They waited an extraordinary time for it to arrive before they could travel up to the bridge.

"Captain, the navigational array picked up a couple of vessels heading towards us. Once they got closer, they read as three _Nebula_ class vessels" Cannon said, dropping into formality as a matter of habit. Naomi decided that now was not the time to argue about that, and the others may well have decided to follow her orders regardless of what she said to them.

"Mez, power up the comm system. I want to know if they are trying to talk to us or not" and Mezoti nodded and began warming up the Operations console.

"Ships have just overtaken us and have come to a halt directly in our flight path" Cannon said.

"Drop us out of warp. Come to a full stop" Naomi said.

"Full stop, Aye, Aye, Captain" Cannon replied. "Controls reading full stop" she added.

"Isn't that my job?" asked Di'et as she walked onto the bridge.

"Well seeing as you wasn't on the bridge to begin with…" teased Cannon. "Now reading full stop" she said to Naomi as she gave up the helm and handed over to Di'et. "Permission to leave the bridge and go below?" and Naomi nodded and Cannon headed down to help with Engineering.

"The lead ship is signalling on the emergency channel by name, Naomi. Her Captain orders you to surrender this vessel" Mezoti said.

"Open a channel" Naomi said.

"Channel open"

"This is Captain Naomi Wildman. What can I do for you today?" she asked pleasantly.

"_Captain Wildman_" said a gruff voice. "_You are charged with stealing a Starfleet vessel. Surrender your ship and prepare to be boarded_"

"Um… actually we found this ship being thrown away. We decided to recycle it" Naomi replied lightly.

"_Captain Wildman. You are charged with a number of crimes. Surrender your vessel, prepare to be boarded and beam yourself over to my vessel_" the male voice said. Naomi made a cutting gesture over her throat and Mezoti killed the channel.

"Weapons on all three ships just went active" she said.

"Have they targeted us?" Di'et asked.

"No, but their shields just went up" Mezoti said.

"Azan to Naomi"

"Go ahead"

"Shields are now available. We are unable to get any power to the phasers" Azan said.

"Good work anyway, Naomi out" Naomi pictured the three ships in her mind. "Put the ships on the main screen. Rankush, be prepared to do something suicidal"

"Controls reading suicidal" the woman laughed.

"They have locked their forward phasers onto us" Mezoti put in quickly.

"Raise shields" Naomi said. "Rankush – take us forward. Ahead 50 KPH" and Di'et frowned and then complied. "They wouldn't dare to fire upon another Starfleet ship. And given the fact that we're running with shields up but weapons unpowered…"

"That's only because we can't get power to them!" Mezoti commented.

"Closing to within Point Blank range" Di'et announced.

"Steady as she goes"

"Steady as she goes, Aye Ma'am" Di'et said. The _Hathaway_ continued slowly towards the three _Nebula_s, and the three on the bridge knew she was no match for even a shuttle in her current condition. "We are passing under the lead ship now" she said.

"Very well. Mezoti, anything you can pick up?" asked Naomi.

"Scans return the same infor… hold one" Mezoti paused as she checked the readings on her outdated console. "The three ships are standing down. The lead vessel is hailing us" and she opened the channel again.

"All stop"

"All stop, Aye Ma'am" Di'et brought _Hathaway_ to a stop right under the torpedo launcher of the first _Nebula_.

"_Captain Wildman_" the voice spoke. "_What are you intentions?_"

"My intentions are to look for the missing ships and then bring them back" Naomi said.

"_Are you aware that I have orders to bring you back to Starfleet Command under arrest?_"

"And you would be if you had really faced us. Unfortunately for you, you've just chased down a decoy" Naomi's comment was followed by a long amount of silence.

"_Oh blast…_" said the voice. "_Looks we chased down a decoy left by the _Hathaway_. I guess we better get out of here_"

"Thank you, Captain" Naomi said.

"_And you too,_ Hathaway" said the male voice. "_Good luck_" and with that the three vessels turned and warped away.

"Rankush, put us back on track for the Klingon border – best possible speed. Mezoti , lower shields and put us back into silent running" Naomi said. The ship swung around drunkenly and then leapt to warp. Two hours later, and it came to a jarring halt.

#

The Warp Drive lost power, and they were forced to lay over in the upper levels of a gas giant to avoid detection. The continuing problems with the Hathaway had caused them to lose another three days after the interception of the ships. It was clear that the plans to reach Klingon space was undoable, and so new plans had to be made. In a break between sessions of Warp drive fixing, they gathered in main engineering to discuss the problem.

"With our Warp Drive, there is no way that we can get to Klingon space. So I have been coming up with a new plan of operation" Mezoti said. "If we can keep a constant Warp 3, then we should be able to reach the Cardassian base that we attacked all those years ago" and she tapped a portable holographic display. It projected a course from the hathaway's current location to the area of space where the base was.

"Wouldn't it be guarded?" asked Di'et.

"The base was given up about five years ago" said Mezoti. "After we found out, Naomi and I bought it" and Cannon and Di'et's jaws dropped.

"You bought an entire space station?" Cannon exclaimed.

"We need a holiday home" shrugged Naomi. "The thought never occurred to me either, but the base is only a week away at Warp 3 – three days if we can coax Warp 5 out the engines" but Azan shook his head.

"I can give you no more then 4.5" he said.

"And that is assuming that we can get the engines working in the first place" his twin added.

"Once we get there, we should be able to find enough spares to patch some of the systems. Right now, she's one stage from a complete systems failure" Naomi said. "Once we get there, apart from the needed spares, there will be all the food and drink we should ever want. As soon as we can get warp power, I think we should be getting underway. To hell with everything else – lets just get to a location that will not shoot us at any given moment" and they went back to work.


	4. The Start Of A Civil War

**The Start Of A Civil War**

# # # # #

_**USS Honour**_

_**NCC 78906**_

_**Patroling the Shikan Zhi Sector**_

Icheb settled into his chair as he gazed at the sight the viewscreen was showing. A star had just gone supernova, and the honour had gone to the _Honour_ of going in close and recording every last detail. The _Honour_ was a member of the second batch of _Sovereign_s, and Icheb had been tinkering with its design ever since he had assumed command. As well as the standard layout, Icheb had had controls installed on the port and starboard impulse drives so that they could be used in the event they lost control of them from the bridge. There was also a back up generator that came online when they went to Red Alert. During those situations, the back up would start supplying power to weapons and shields so there was no delay if they ever lost the main and auxiliary power grids.

"Incoming message from Starfleet" said his communications officer. "Code 47 – Captain's Eyes Only" the activity on the bridge slowed as they heard the call that normally meant invasion.

"Confirm that Code 47" Icheb ordered.

"Confirmed, Code 47, Captain" said the communications officer.

"I'll take it in my Ready Room" said Icheb, and went directly inside to take the call.

#

"She's done what?" asked Icheb in surprise.

"_She took the ship and went off. We have intermittent contact with her ever since. A freighter last saw her three days from the Klingon border. Your orders are to go after her, and to place her under arrest in your brig_"

"Admiral, I wish to protest that. If Naomi did something drastic, then it would only be because there was no other option open to her" Icheb said.

"_That may be so, however she stole a starship and has gone renegade on some half baked cockamamie plan to recover Voyager. She must know that there is no way to get her back plus the other ships. Given the fact she is considered a hero, we'll give her a court martial but pass her an honourable discharge_" the Admiral on the screen focused even more on Icheb. "_You have your orders, Captain_" he said.

"What do I do if she refuses to surrender the _Hathaway_?" Icheb asked.

"_Then you are ordered to use any means to stop her from escaping – including blowing her out of the stars_" and Icheb's eyebrows shot up to the ceiling.

"Am I to understand, Sir, that you wish me to fire on another Starfleet vessel that would be in no way endangering this ship?" Icheb asked calmly. He was boiling up inside, but there was no way he was letting the Admiral see how angry he was.

"_That is correct_" came the reply.

"Admiral, I am sorry to ask this, but I am going to require your written orders before starting this assignment" Icheb let his disappointment show.

"_I know your relationship with Captain Wildman, so I already had the orders written. You should be receiving them now_" and at that moment, the screen indicated an incoming message.

"I have it now, Sir" Icheb took a calming breath before continuing. "Admiral Light, I formally protest the order and request that it be written into your department's duty log" and Light nodded.

"_I thought you might say that. I'm not upset with you, Captain, I just know you'd protect Captain Wildman as much as possible. Just take comfort in the fact you are doing your duty. Starfleet out_" and the Admiral vanished from the screen. Icheb brought up his formal orders to begin searching for the _Hathaway_ in the Drayus System.

#

"Helm, set course 353 mark 12, Warp 8" Icheb strode onto the bridge.

"Course plotted and laid in, Sir" replied the startled officer. He was expecting to maintain a course around the Supernova.

"Engage" and the _Honour_ jumped into warp.

"Something the matter, Captain?" asked Icheb's first officer.

"Something very much the matter, Number One" Icheb replied. "Something very much wrong indeed" and he walked to the turbolift.

"Whats happened?" asked the first officer. "Where are we going?" and Icheb turned back to look at him with eyes that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"We're going to kill a friend, Anthony. We're going to kill Naomi Wildman"

# # # # #

"Approaching the system" Di'et said.

"Very well" Naomi said. "Raise shields and drop out of warp" and the _Hathaway_ slowed to impulse. "Ahead one half, steady on course"

"Ahead one half, steady on course – Aye, Ma'am" Di'et said.

"Begin active sensor sweeps"

"Scanning now…" said Mezoti. "No ships detected. This does not discount the theory that there are cloaked vessels in the system" she added.

"Always with the good news" Naomi grinned at her wife.

"Sending friendly ID" she grinned back.

"Why can't we just dock?" asked Cannon.

"Because otherwise it would power up and shoot us" Naomi replied. The sounds of _Escape To Victory_ played over the comm system, and Mezoti nodded in delight.

"Codes accepted" she said.

"Di'et – stand by to dock at Upper Pylon 3" Naomi said. "Bridge to Engine Room"

"Engine Room" came Rebi's voice.

"You can power down and vent the warp drive" Naomi said. "We've arrived at the station"

"Understood. Would you like us to begin effecting repairs now?" Rebi enquired.

"Leave it until tomorrow" replied Naomi. "We could do with a rest anyway. Bridge out"

"Closing to station" said Di'et.

"Go to thrusters – ahead one quarter. Mezoti, lower the shields, and activate the station's main power. Once it is powering up, engage the umbilicals and be ready to attach them to us. We'll run off the station's generators" Naomi said.

"Aye"

"Sure thing" and the _Hathaway_ moved towards the station and made an almost perfect docking. It was marred only by the port thrusters going down, but that was easily correctable.

"Secure all stations, and place them on standby" Naomi said.

"Main power is offline. We are now running on station supplies" Mezoti announced.

"Right then, shall we go over?" and with that, Naomi lead the group onto the turbolift and down to the docking port. Azan and Rebi had already got there by that time, and they crossed over to the station together.

"Go explore to your heart's content" Naomi said. "I'm going up to Ops to set up automatic sensor sweeps to alert us to any incoming ships" and the group split up.

#

"I still can't believe that you have purchased an entire station" said Cannon.

"Well we brought it at a surplus sale" Mezoti shrugged. They had gathered in Ops, and they were perched around the outside on various chairs and stand up seats.

"The main thing is that we've got a place to have as a base. If it is who I think it is, then we may well be close by" Naomi said cryptically.

"Who do you think it is?" asked Di'et.

"Section 31" and everyone gasped. "It all makes sense. They did this before and I can only assume it took them this long to get their forces up to strength. Ships vanishing without proper orders… it _has_ to be them" said Naomi.

"But why take _Voyager_?" asked Azan.

"They wanted to get back at me" said Naomi darkly. "The renowned Starfleet Captain that took them out. The hero of the Federation. For all I know, they took her away and blew her to pieces" she added with a thick tone.

"So what do we do?" asked Rebi.

"We should work on getting the _Hathaway_ combat effective" Naomi said. "We have a limited amount of torpedoes, but our main aim should be to restore phaser capacity. Without those working, we're more or less a dead duck after we fire the last torpedo" and there was a general collection of nods.

"If they are nearby, then we might pick them up on the High Band sensors" said Cannon.

"Unless they are running in reduced power mode" pointed out Di'et. "They could also be hiding in a nebula just outside our range" she added.

"We could launch a couple of probes" said Cannon, but Azan shook his head.

"We will require every torpedo on the station and on the _Hathaway_. We shall have to make up some torpedo casings and then add sensor equipment" he said.

"That should take up the best part of a week" contributed Rebi. "We should aim to get the _Hathaway_'s systems fully functional first, and only then turn to these extra tasks" and Naomi agreed.

"So long as we all take a day or so off first, I don't see any problem with us starting on the Warp Core sometime mid-morning tomor…" she was cut off by the sensor detecting something of interest. Mezoti looked at the readings as she was the nearest to the sensor station.

"What do you read?" asked Naomi.

"Starship approaching. Heavy Cruiser class… She has raised shields and is arming weapons" Mezoti said.

"Battlestations!" Naomi calmly ordered. Cannon made her way to what passed for tactical, and brought the weapons systems online.

"Shields are up. Weapons systems are armed but do not have a target" she said.

"Whose is it?" Naomi asked her wife, and came round the consoles to stand behind her to the left.

"Receiving recognition codes now" Mezoti replied. "NCC 78906. _USS Honour_. Isn't that Icheb's ship?" she looked round at her wife.

"I think so" Naomi mused. "Stand by on the weapons, Allison. Open a channel to the ship" and Icheb appeared on the screen.

"_Captain Wildman_" he greeted her with a nod.

"Captain Icheb, what a surprise to see you here. Are you not a little early for our holiday together?" Naomi said straight faced.

"_You know why I have come here, Naomi. I am asking you to surrender the _Hathaway_ and come back with me in the _Honour_'s brig – under arrest_"

"Sorry – didn't quite catch that, Icheb. Bit of a bad line. I thought you wanted me to surrender!" Naomi swore she saw a smile pass over Icheb's lips.

"_Naomi, you know what I have to do. Please make it easier for me, yourself and those with you by coming quietly_" but Naomi shook her head.

"Sorry Icheb, but those thieves took _Voyager_" she said. "I am not going to give up the search" and they all saw Icheb battle with something he knew.

"_I must warn you officially, that I am authorised to fire upon you until you've been destroyed unless you surrender now_"

"_Incoming message from Starfleet_" said a voice off screen.

"_Put it on screen_" Icheb said.

"Patch us in" Naomi whispered to Mezoti who nodded.

"_Captain, have you arrived yet?_" asked a voice Naomi knew belonged to Admiral Light of Starfleet Security.

"_I have just arrived, Sir, and I am attempting to get a surrender from Captain Wildman. So far, she has gone to battlestations but has taken no action towards us – nor has she targeted this vessel_" Icheb said.

"_Then fire at once Captain_" Light ordered.

"_I repeat: Captain Wildman has taken no action towards us. I am attempting to take her in peacefully_" Icheb said.

"_She is armed and dangerous. For the sake of your ship and the Federation, you have to act first_" Light said.

"Cannon, lower shields and disarm the weapons grid" Naomi said quietly.

"Captain…?"

"Just do it" Mezoti knew what Naomi was banking on. She hoped it would work just as much as her wife.

"Aye, Captain" said Cannon.

"_The station has lowered shields, and has powered down weapons_" said an officer on the _Honour_.

"_Now is your chance_"Light said. "_Fire_!"

"_Standby weapons_" said Icheb. "_Captain Wildman, I give you one last chance to surrender_"

"_Don't wait – destroy the station_!" demanded Light.

"Come on, Icheb. You have to see these are illegal orders as per the Rules of Engagement" Naomi said.

"_That you, Wildman_?" Light asked. "_Know that you never got away with your little stunt, and that you caused the deaths of innocent people_" he said. "_Captain Icheb, fire upon the station. That is a direct order_!" and they could see Icheb struggle with his conscious. A fist wavered up and down before he pounded it into the right arm of his chair.

"_Negative, Admiral. _Honour_ will not engage in support of illegal orders_" he said, and Naomi gave him a smile and a nod of thanks.

"_I should have never put you in this situation, you coward_" Light said. "_I am relieving you of command. Commander Philby, I am promoting you to Captain and ordering you to engage the station_" and there was a pause as somebody moved into the sensor's arc holding a phaser at Icheb.

"_I always knew you wanted the centre seat, Tony. I just never realised how bad until now_" Icheb said, and the screen cut off as the figure pulled Icheb from the command chair.

"They are locking on" said Cannon.

"_I would say that you will regret this, Wildman, but you'll be dead soon so it doesn't matter_" Light was still on the channel.

"Raise shields and power weapons" Naomi said, "And cut that twat off" she added with a curse.

"_Honour_ has locked on weapons and is loading torpedo bays" Cannon said. "Our weapons are powered. Shall I open fire?" she asked.

"I won't fire unless fired upon" Naomi said, and at that moment the ship fired upon the station. With the powerful shields, they only noticed it by the sensors registering the impact.

"They are switching to Quantum Torpedoes" Mezoti said.

"Permission to return fire" Cannon asked.

"I won't fire – Icheb's onboard"

"That doesn't matter!" Cannon said. "They are under orders to destroy us" and the _Honour_ opened up with both phasers and torpedoes. They struck a weak part of the shields which caused a momentary power loss and reduced the shields to 72% in one volley.

"Naomi…" Mezoti said softly to her wife as the ship played phaser fire upon the station's shields in order to weaken them.

"Alright, lock on her forward phaser arrays" Naomi said with regret. "Fire wh-"

"_Naomi?_" Icheb's voice came over the still open channel.

"Stand by" Naomi said to Cannon. "Icheb – go" and everyone in Ops could hear the sounds of fighting going on in the background.

"_The crew has suspended Commander Philby's promotion. _Honour_ is non combatant. Repeat – we are non combatant. We are standing down…_" and seconds later, sensors confirmed that her shields and weapons were offline.

"You better beam over here" said Naomi.

"_I have to take care of the trash first, but I'll be right over_" said Icheb.

"I'll see you in the Station Commander's office when you can get over. Naomi out" and she closed the channel.

"Allison, stand down weapons and shields. Keep scanning the _Honour_ for any signs this is a trick. Di'et you have the deck. Mez, Azan, Rebi – with me" and with that Naomi went to the Station Commander's office with her friends.

#

"After all this time, now they move?" asked Icheb. "I just can't believe it" he said.

"It makes sense when you think about it" said Naomi. "I mean we always knew we never caught all of the agents Section 31 had. They must have spent all this time recruiting and infiltrating the top levels of Starfleet – putting its people in key positions. Then when the time is right, they take top of the line starships and then blow up Spacedock and claim it was a terrorist attack" and it all fell into place for Icheb.

"Great Bird of the Galaxy…" he breathed. "It would cause a civil war of epic proportions. We must get this information to Starfleet Command" but Azan shook his head.

"If they have got Section 31 agents into key locations and positions, as we believe, then it is likely they will pass the information on. One other thing we should take into consideration is the fact that other Starships will be sent to hunt us, and now you, down" he said.

"I know that" Icheb said. "I have had a word with my crew, and they've agreed to work under _your_ command, Naomi" and Naomi flushed a brilliant red.

"It will be an honour to serve with you" she said.

"In whatever fleet we end up in" she and Icheb finished together with a smile.

"My science office showed you to be almost suffering complete systems failure on the _Hathaway_" Icheb said. "I can have Engineering teams beam over and begin to make repairs and bring you up to a fighting ability" but the unspoken truth was that they knew the _Hathaway _would be no use against the more powerful _Sovereign_s, _Galaxy_s and _Defiant_s that made up the backbone of the fleet – to speak nothing of the _Akira_s, _Steamrunners_ and _Saber_s that made up the some of the rest of the fleet.

"I'd have them start on the warp core, then shields and weapons" Rebi said. "We suffered problems with those the entire way here" and Icheb nodded.

"Icheb, you think other ships might join us?" asked Mezoti.

"Quite possibly" he replied. "On our way here, we picked up a massive increase in subspace traffic to certain sector bases and ships. If what you say is true, then this could be the start of a civil war" and he got nods of agreement from the others present in the office.

"So how many ships do you think we can count on – apart from our two vessels?" Naomi asked.

"We picked up repeated questioning from several vessels. It seems that Starfleet Security is putting the word out that you are the cause of the attack on Spacedock" Icheb said. "In total, I think we might be able to count on at least three vessels. One of which is a _Galaxy_ class" and Naomi felt a little safer with that knowledge. With two ships of the line, she could rest assured that the station would remain safe enough during any fighting that may take place.

# # # # #

"We managed to patch up those hull breaches" said one Captain, "But they should really be done at a station of some kind" she added.

"Well they know what side we are on now, so they'll be sending a fleet after us" said the second.

"Especially after our advanced knowledge of the coup" said the third.

"So what do we do now?" asked the second Captain.

"That's a good question" replied the third.

"I know of a place" said the first, and she showed them some co-ordinates she knew of.

#

"_You have an incoming call_" said the computer on the station.

"Tell them to call back later" Naomi muttered and carefully slipped out of bed and put on a robe. She crept out of the bedroom so she didn't disturb the sleeping form of her wife.

"_You have an incoming call_" the computer said once more.

"I know… I know…" Naomi grumbled. "Put the call through to the terminal" she said. A moment later, and Cannon popped onto the screen.

"_Oh… I do apologise. I didn't realise that you and Mezoti were in the middle of something_" she said.

"Luckily we were not" Naomi said. "What's the matter then?" she asked.

"_I thought you should know that the engineers from the _Honour_ have finished repairs on the warp core. Their solution was to shut it down completely and purge the inside of it. We now have Warp speed up to a factor of Warp 6.27_" and Naomi nodded carefully. Despite it being lower then what the _Hathaway_ was rated for, it was the best you could do with a 40 year old rebuilt warp drive. If it had still kept the original drive, it wouldn't have made Warp 2 before they were caught.

"What about the rest of the repairs?" she asked.

"_They've had to start repairing the phasers the hard way. It seems that the last crew burned through the controls at the phaser couplings. As well as that, they simply smashed the consoles. The_ Honour_'s chief engineer reports that they can repair it with parts from their inventory easily enough, but it will take several days for them to complete. Captain Icheb has transferred six of his Quantum Torpedoes to the _Hathaway_'s armoury, so we can at least pack a little punch_" Cannon gave Naomi details in a clear manner. The officer knew well from past experience that her Commanding Officer could not deal with complex things first thing in the morning.

"Ask them to look into putting a few of those Bio-Neural gel packs into the _Hathaway_. It might help us keep track of what is going on in a combat situation. Most of the stuff on her is at least 20 years old after all" Naomi said.

"_I shall contact them soon_" Cannon promised. "_Goodnight, Captain_"

"Oh… it already is" and Naomi just had enough time to see Cannon go bright red before she vanished from the screen. "She really needs to get laid…" and Naomi returned to the bedroom to finish the much needed and deserved sleep.

#

"Status report" Icheb called as he walked onto the bridge of his ship.

"Repairs to the _Hathaway_ are still underway" reported the Chief Engineer. "Her phaser controls should be ready by 09:30 tomorrow morning. The difficultly is getting the phasers to take the targeting packages from the bridge. The manual controls in the armoury are completely smashed, so we're stripping out everything and rebuilding it with parts from ship's stores. We adapted the _Hathaway_'s shields to a different frequency, and we've installed one of our Regen Shield modules into the forward shield emitter. We figured that any attacker would attempt to destroy the weapons, so we're making it harder for them" and Icheb was impressed.

"Is there anything else that I should know about?" he asked, casting an eye around the bridge.

"We've looked at the _Hathaway_'s weak points, and fitted those areas with ablative armour. In short, with all the weapons, hull and shield upgrades – she could take on a _Defiant_ and go back for seconds" the engineer said.

"Very well. I am going to speak to Captain Wildman in the Ready Room. You have the bridge"

"Aye, Sir" and Icheb walked off into his ready room to speak with Naomi.

#

"… in fourteen hours" he finished.

"_That's impressive_" said Naomi. "_Once most of the work is complete, we'll begin low power testing. When _everything_ is complete, then we'll undock and give her a shakedown. I'd like to meet your chief engineer on the station in about an hour's time. Do you think you can prise her away from your engine room for that long_?" Naomi chuckled on the screen, and Icheb had a good laugh himself. It was a sign of how he had adapted after arriving back in the Alpha Quadrant nearly 20 years previously.

"I was wondering if some of my work crews could take up quarters on the station" Icheb said. "It would save wear and tear on the transporters having to beam people there and back again. We've been a while without shore leave, so it can act as that for them. I'll have a list of thos…"

"_Bridge to Captain_"

"Icheb"

"_Three vessels just dropped out of warp at the extreme range of short range sensors. CBDR – can not get an ID on them_" said his engineer.

"Go to yellow alert, and plot an intercept course…"

"_We've got them on our sensors_" Naomi said, glancing to Mezoti by her side. "_We show one _Nebula_ class vessel, one _Orbeth_ class vessel and a _Galaxy_ class. Are these the ships you meant_?" Naomi asked Icheb.

"Perhaps… I'll go to the bridge and find out" and with that he pressed a button which transferred the connection to the main viewscreen on the bridge.

#

It was indeed the three ships Icheb had told Naomi about earlier. The story they told was a pretty horrifying one to say the least. A large number of Starfleet Security had been beamed directly into certain offices and buildings to arrest and detain personnel deemed a threat to Section 31. A number of ships had assumed an armed orbit around key shipyards and orbital facilities, and they also kept above ground based facilities. When some ships had attempted to contact headquarters for instructions, all that had happened was a bunch of 31 Loyal vessels would pounce on them and either force them to surrender, join with them or be destroyed. The _Challenger_ – the _Galaxy_ class vessel - had been in contact with Headquarters at the time of the coup, and their connection was silent for a long time. They had repeatedly asked if everything was alright, and eventually they got a reply which her Captain showed to Naomi.

# ## #

"We know that a number of other ships have refused to follow the new orders" said Levitt. "As I said, a lot of them were either destroyed or have surrendered. Those that managed to escape have scattered throughout the Federation. We thought we picked up sensor echoes of ships heading to the Klingon border a day ago. Some of them are heading in this direction – but we're not certain that they are friendly or foe" she added.

"Well with the _Honour_ and the _Challenger_ we should be able to hold off any enemy that comes within weapons range" Icheb said.

"And the station can take on any enemy as well" Naomi said. "My engineers have increased the range of the phasers by narrowing the beam by 3%. Although that reduces the power slightly, it does give us extra range. We believe they would have to resort to launch torpedoes at us while they engage you two with their phasers. The _Orbeth_ can shoot down any torpedoes that gets to a dangerous range" Naomi said.

"You do realise that my commission predates yours" said Levitt.

"How so?"

"Your commission dates from _Voyager_'s return from the Delta Quadrant. Mine is from six months before that" but Icheb shook his head.

"Captain Levitt, Naomi's commission dates from two years before we returned to the Alpha Quadrant. As of this moment, Captain Wildman is the senior officer present in this sector" and Levitt had the good grace to apologise to Naomi. She had believed the commission dated to when they had arrived at Starbase 375 all those years ago.

"What we need now is to man the critical stations on the station. Could I ask you all for recommendations for the Infirmary, Engineering, Tactical and Operations? I also would like a work crew from each of your ships to join those of the _Honour_ and help to bring the _Hathaway_ up to speed" the other officers nodded in agreement.

"It would be useful to know the chain of command should anything happen to you" said Levitt, and Naomi considered that before making decisions in her head.

"The _Hathaway_ will be the flagship of our little fleet. I shall be in command, but if anything should happen to me, then command devolves to Captain Icheb" she said. When Levitt protested, Naomi reminded her that her record clearly stated she had lost eight years seniority over an incident with a Romulan cargo ship.

"Very well. I also would like to apologise again, Captain Wildman. I was on my bridge for 27 hours straight. I am a little on edge as you can guess" and Naomi just waved it off.

"Go back to your ship and get some rest" she suggested, then thought of a way to make sure Levitt got the proper rest. "In fact, that is an order from the Fleet Commander" and that got a round of laughs from everyone present.

"If we could start to do this soon, then we can at least get the _Hathaway_ spaceworthy" Mezoti said.

"Oh, good idea" and patted her hand affectionately. When Naomi looked at the three new Captains, she saw mixed looks on their faces. "I know that Starfleet frowns upon same sex relationships, but Mezoti and I were married legally and the service was conducted by Admiral William Ross. If you have any issues with that, you are free to depart from here. Dismiss! Captain Icheb, you'll remain please" and the three Captain left to return to their ships.

"Idiots…" muttered Icheb. "They will not last six minutes against a full fleet engagement. Our best hope is to stick to your plan and hope for the best. If we pair the _Hathaway_ with the _Searcher_ then they'd make an effective strike group on their own. They could take on any of the smaller ships like the _Defiants_ that might be sent up against us" and Naomi agreed with Icheb's suggestion

"We shall do that" said Naomi. "Now if you excuse us, me and Mez have an appointment in the holosuite. We're going exploring" and the cheeky grin told Icheb what exploring it was to be.

"Where this time?" he asked casually as they stepped into Ops.

"The original _Enterprise_" said Mezoti. "I've always wanted to do it on Captain Kirk's bridge" and with that they skipped off into turbolift. Icheb sometimes wondered what it would be like to be with Naomi and/or Mezoti, but they were only harmless thoughts which amused him privately.

#

Over the next 24 hours, another seventeen ships made their way to Voyager Station as it had become known. A few were even more damaged then the _Hathaway_ was, so Naomi had the ship move to a holding location near the station so they had another docking port available. The incoming vessels had a large number of wounded, and so every other ship pooled their resources together to form round the clock surgeries, and they set up temporary Infirmaries in the unused cargo bays of the station.

"We lost another 150 people" said Mezoti as she sat with the senior officers of the fleet.

"Those are light numbers compared to what it could have been" said Icheb.

"True" said Levitt. "Our long range scouts report that most of the fleet is broken into two factions. Those that support the coup, and those ships that do not. We've picked up some faint comm traffic, so we been able to gather what happened. Section 31 brought their ships out of warp directly in front of all starships and starbases they wanted to control. If they refused to join or surrender, then they opened fire and destroyed them without mercy. We know that they control most of the shipyards, but a couple of the ships here evacuated the engineers that work on them. They've suspended the Federation council, ordered all non Federation members out of Federation space in one week, or they will be shot on sight" and the other senior officers were disgusted at what was going on.

"Any luck on finding _Voyager_?" asked Naomi.

"We picked up the name, but that could have been a news story about you" Levitt replied.

"What are we supposed to do now then?" asked another Captain.

"We continue to repair our ships, tend to our wounded and wait" Naomi replied.

"And all the time other friendly ships could be destroyed…?"

"If you want to go, then I am not going to stop" Naomi said to him.

"Now I never said that" the other Captain said quickly.

"Good" was Azan and Rebi's harmonious reply.

"For now, this is what we are going to do:- We shall maintain a constant yellow alert, the most damaged ships will go under repair and not take part in any fighting that might happen. _Honour_, _Challenger_ and _Cheddar_ will continue to make patrols at the outer reaches of the system" Naomi said.

"If I might suggest something" said a middle aged Commander. He was filling in for his Captain who was injured when the bridge was demolished around him. "The _Venture_, _Challenger_ and a couple of the larger ships have civilians aboard. I would like to put forth that we offload them. Should the worst come to the worst, then at least we would be able to keep the losses down as much as possible" and Naomi nodded and had the task given to Cannon and Di'et.

"_Ops to Wildman_" came Di'et's voice.

"Wildman here" Naomi tapped her combadge.

"_We're picking up a message from a ship three light years away_" said Di'et, and she patched in the message to the open link.

"_MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY_" a female voice which sounded panicked. "_This is the _USS Lalo_ relaying a mayday for the _USS Lakota_. She has lost all power whilst under attack from rogue elements of Starfleet. She is leaking atmosphere, has suffered severe hull loss, and has taken casualties. This is the _USS Lalo_ relaying a message for the _USS Lakota_. This ship is in urgent need of assistance_. Lalo_ stands by to assist her, but we need the help of any ship capable_"

"It's a trap!" said somebody.

"Of course it's a trap, Ackbar" said another voice.

"It could be a trap, but then again there may be people in urgent need of our help" Naomi felt the burdens of command push into her body once more. "Di'et, you got the coordinates for the mayday?" she asked.

"_Yes_"

"Pass them to the _Honour_, _Bond_ and the _Salisbury_" she said. "Have them get ready to warp there the moment their Captain's are aboard. Until we return, Captain Levitt of the _Challenger_ is in charge" and with that she closed the channel. "We have only a short time, people. Get as many medical personnel back onto your ships and then head to those coordinates. I shall be going as well aboard the _Honour_. Any questions?" but nobody had any. Half an hour later, and three ships left the station and headed at maximum warp to the location gathered from the transmission.

#

"Can you get there any faster?" asked Naomi to Icheb.

"We shall see" her friend replied. "Bridge to engine room. Standby by for maximum velocity. Helm, increase speed to Warp 9.99" and the officer at helm turned round to look at Icheb.

"Captain, that's well beyond the redline for the engines" she said.

"I am well aware of the capability of this ship, Mister" Icheb said calmly. "You have your orders, carry them out" but the helm officer was made of slightly sterner stuff then most recent graduates of the Academy.

"Sir, if we do that, the ship will be a write off. Redline is redline for a reason" and he looked to other crewmembers for support. However, when your commanding officer is a Hero of _Voyager_, and has both another hero, and the Captain he once served under – rolled into one and the same person – standing on his bridge, not many people would think about coming to his help.

"You're relieved of duty. Get off my bridge…" and the young Ensign didn't need telling twice as he scurried off the bridge.

"Still got it, I see" Naomi said quietly, and Icheb looked at her with a serious gaze – but one Naomi knew was actually Icheb at his driest of humour.

"Shall I take the helm?" asked the Science officer.

"No…" Icheb said. "Captain Wildman, take the helm, if you please" and Naomi smiled as she moved down two steps and crossed over to the helm.

"Aye, Captain" she joked. "Say…" she leant over to the Operations manager next to her. "You got any idea how to steer this?" she asked. "I mean there are so many buttons. I wonder what this one does? It's marked 'Do Not Press Under Any Circumstances'. Maybe I should try it" and she sat up and made to press the button.

"That's enough teasing, Naomi" Icheb said from the centre seat.

"Spoil sport" she stuck her tongue out in a manner unbecoming a Starfleet Captain, but then again she was never a prime example like Captain Picard. Because of her revered status throughout the Federation and allied worlds, Starfleet had allowed her to get away with many things. "Increasing speed to Warp 9.99" she went business like. The _Honour_ pulled away from her two partners without any visible effort, but in engineering, the crews were working to keep the core balanced and not going into an overload and breach. "Time to intercept now at three minutes" she said.

"Have we picked up anything else from the two ships?" Icheb asked his science officer.

"No, but that might just mean their comm system blew out, they are being jammed, or both ships have been destroyed" the grim answer came.

"Well they were shouting their location for all and sundry" Naomi said.

"Picking up faint traces of weapons fire" science suddenly said. "Both ships are badly damaged. We will not make it in time" and Icheb knew what he had to do.

"Computer, override all safeties on the Warp Drive. Authorisation MDZHB-Orange" he said.

"Computer, Captain Naomi Wildman. Confirming override of Warp Drive safety protocols. Authorisation Flotter T Water III" Naomi spoke without being asked to.

"_Safety system now offline_" the computer intoned.

"Naomi, increase speed to Warp 9.991" Icheb ordered.

"Aye" she replied.

"_Warning, Warp Core temperatures are exceeding maximum tolerance_" the computer warned. Icheb was not that worried about it. He knew that the _Honour_ had been tinkered with a little by himself, and a new excess heat vent would allow the extra 0.001 of Warp Factor.

"_Engineering to Bridge_" the voice of his chief engineer came up on the comm.

"Bridge here"

"_Did you just override the safeties_?"

"Just for a few moments. The ships we're going to assist are under possible attack"

"_Oh_" and there was a soft click as the channel was closed.

"Approaching location indicated" said the science officer. I'm reading four ships ahead of us" she added.

"Red Alert!" Icheb ordered calmly. "All hands stand to your battlestations" and the lighting darkened and red alert panels lit up and flashed on and off as the klaxons started going off all over the ship. "Bring us out of Warp. Stand by all weapons" and Naomi brought the ship gently and smoothly out of warp. Three vessels protected a forth one from any further harm. Around them was a load of debris that could only come from at least two ships.

"My gods… look at her" whispered the tactical officer. The forth ship had to be the _Lakota_. The venerable _Excelsior_ class ship looked like she had been used as target practice for every ship in the known universe. Her once pristine greyish white hull was full of holes – and only emergency forcefields held back the remaining breathable air from escaping into space. She had taken damage from stem to stern, and it was a wonder how she had managed to survive this long. The damage was not as bad as _Voyager_'s had been, and _Excelsior_s were always tougher then people thought. That was why so many survived during the Dominion War.

"Has she broken her back?" asked Naomi.

"That is the only thing at 100%" replied the science officer.

"What are those funny dots floating close by her?" asked Ops. The screen focused and zoomed in to reveal the frozen bodies of some of the _Lakota_'s crew who had been ejected into space when the hull breaches had vented entire compartments.

"Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer. Take the lives of your sons and daughters lost this day into your hands, and grant them eternal life for evermore" the tactical officer recited a prayer from his childhood.

"So say we all" Icheb and Naomi said at the same time, but there was no humour in the situation.

"We are being hailed"

"On screen"

"Its audio only" and the speakers popped and fizzed a few moments before a voice spoke.

"_This is the _Lalo_. Thank you for coming to our assistance. Two other ships came to our aid, but we're going to need all the help we can get for the poor _Lakota_. If you can beam some of the wounded over to your ship, that would be of great help_" said the voice. Nobody knew if it was the Captain or another officer speaking to them.

"This is Captain Icheb of the _USS Honour_. We're moving in to assist you. We have two over ships following us in. We nearly burnt out our warp core in order to get to you" Icheb said. "With your permission, I'd like to beam over and speak to you and the other Captains in person" and there was a long pause before the reply came back.

"_The _Lakota_'s Captain has been killed, and the First Officer is in a coma in our sickbay_" said the voice. "_The bridge on her was vented out to space, and everyone just got out. The Captain… she is still there. We can't recover the body…_" and Icheb and Naomi both knew well what was going through the minds of the _Lalo_'s crew. The other two ships dropped out of warp, and at Naomi's direction began rescue operations. Detailed scans using the _Honour_'s enhanced sensor package were made of the _Lakota_, and it was determined that she was safe to be towed at low warp. At a meeting of the other Captains and the senior officer from the _Lakota_, Naomi promised to get the ship to the gathered fleet if she had to get out and push.

#

"That ship is nearly a write off" Icheb said.

"I am surprised it managed to stay in one piece with that amount of damage – even taking the legendary strength of her class into account. Of course, _Voyager_ was far worse after everything that happened to her" Mezoti said. "I sent the twins everything in a Borg data packet, and they replied back a few moments ago. According to them, it would take six to seven months to repair all of that damage if we docked the ship and used crews from every other ship in the fleet. If we had a drydock, then it would be about 4 months – assuming crews worked around the clock. But as we don't have a drydock…"

"Perhaps we should ask Father Christmas for one?" suggested Naomi.

#

The _Lakota_ was dragged back to the station under a low warp tow, and the group arrived back to find something most interesting. During the time they had been away, three Fleet Tugs had arrived towing a complete drydock behind them. The battered starship was placed inside and work began at once to repair and refit her for a return to service. Naomi and Icheb spoke with the senior officer of the _Lakota_ and found out what had happened to the ship. The _Lakota_ had been on patrol of the Federation border when news had broken out about the bombing of Spacedock. The ship had been ordered to maintain its patrol, but was instructed to return to Sector 001 as soon as it was able. A quarter of the way, a pair of _Sovereign_s had ordered her heaved to, and after the _Lakota_ had refused to join the uprising, they had been fired upon again and again. The ship had sent out a mayday, and the other three had arrived to render aid. The _Sovereign_s were either reluctant to fire upon ships other then the _Lakota_, or had orders to retreat if the situation called for it.

"So we have a total force of 29 ships – 30 if you count the _Lakota_" said Icheb.

"And a lot of them are older ships" said Rebi. "However, all _Excelsior_ class vessels were adapted to fire the Quantum Torpedo, so they can still put up an effective force. Most of them still carry the increased phaser capacitors from the Dominion War, but they are locked out of use. We could unlock and reconnect them to the grid which would then increase the destructive power behind them" he added.

"We would have to conduct examinations to see which ships may have problems with that" Azan said, picking up from where his twin had left off. "Some of them were due for retirement anyway" and after asking Naomi's permission to leave, left the station commander's office to start work on what they needed to do.

"I've been thinking…" started Mezoti.

"About what?" asked Icheb.

"We have a lot of angry and demoralised people. We need something to change that" and she tapped the desk controls and a holographic picture came out. Smaller boxes appeared on it which gave information on various locations on the star map. "At Warp 6, we are only six hours away from the Prendel system. It has a listening post that Section 31 controls. Now if we take a lone ship, we could evade detection until it is too late. We drop out of warp, destroy the post and then warp out before anybody knew what was gong on" and as she spoke, a little ship icon moved from Voyager Station and travelled across the hologram to end up at the listening post – depicted as a triangle with little wires sticking out of it. The icon fired two little pinpricks of light at the triangle which blinked several times and then vanished, and the ship icon turned and warped back again to the station.

"It is a bold plan" said Levitt. "Which ship will you take?" she wondered.

"We take the _Hathaway_ and filler her with arms and people from the _Lakota_. They nearly lost their ship, so this will be them getting a piece of revenge for their ship" Naomi said.

"Are you sure? The _Hathaway_ is old and worn out – even with the additions that have been made" Levitt said.

"True" admitted Icheb, "But what a moral raiser it would be for them? An old starship beating the odds to destroy a high value target? This will give them a confidence boost" he added.

"I want a full set of Quantums from the _Lakota_ moved onto the _Hathaway_ no later then 03:45" Naomi ordered. "I'm sure you'll have no shortage of people willing to go on the mission, but what we really need is an engine room crew plus a bridge crew. We'll leave at 05:00 and should arrive no later then 11:00. Any problems can be sorted out whilst we're under weigh. As per normal circumstances, Captain Icheb shall be in command until I return" Naomi wondered briefly how the hell she had gone from builder to fleet commander in less then two weeks.

# # # # #

"Captain on the bridge!" shouted Mezoti.

"As you were" Naomi called as she stepped out of the turbolift. "Status report" she added.

"Loading of quantum torpedoes from the _Lakota_ has been completed. Engineering reports we are ready to warp out at any moment" Mezoti said.

"Very well" Naomi stepped into the command pit of the _Hathaway_. "Bridge to Engine Room. Stand by for warp speed" Naomi pressed the button on centre seat arm.

"_Standing by_" came a baritone voice. Naomi looked around at the bridge before pressing another button on the chair arm panel.

"Attention all hands: this is the Captain. In a moment, we'll be embarking on our mission. Most of you have your thoughts on your comrades from the _Lakota_, and that is only right under the circumstances. But remember this one thing – we shall not make their deaths have been in vain. We shall travel to the listening post and destroy it. Not only will be our first strike back, but we will have shown to those that would defeat and enslave us that we shall fight back" and Naomi clicked off the button and settled into the chair. Although she was getting used to it, she still missed the chair from _Voyager_. "Helm, set course for the Prendel system – Warp 6" she ordered.

"Course plotted and laid in" reported the helm officer.

"Engage" and the ship turned around and jumped to warp.

# # # # #

The ship travelled in strict radio silence so as to not give away its location. Onward through the endless black it went, and inside everyone was prepared to carry out their mission. At Naomi's order, the _Hathaway_ was under a constant Yellow Alert, and her shields were raised with extra power available should it be required. Naomi was talking with Mezoti and the Chief Engineer of the _Lakota_ when the intercom sounded.

"_Bridge to Captain_"

"Captain here" Naomi tapped her combadge.

"_Captain, we're picking up the station on long range sensors. Estimate one hour until we have to drop out of warp_" the bridge called.

"Any signs that we have been detected?"

"_Negative_"

"Very well. I shall return to the bridge in a short time. Wildman out" she turned to the other two. "Should the helm become disabled, then I want you to engage the warp drive from Engineering. I want to get away from here at all costs" Naomi said.

"I will stay here in case the bridge is disabled as a whole" said Mezoti, and Naomi had a moment of fear before agreeing to the suggestion.

"I'll be going to the bridge" she said, then gave her wife a long kiss on the lips whilst the engineer looked at the ceiling for cracks in the panelling.

#

"Red Alert! All hands to battlestations!" Naomi said as she stepped onto the bridge. The lights switched from normal levels to a few shades above dark, and it caused people to cast extraordinary long shadows from the scarlet lighting from the Red Alert strips. All over the bridge and the rest of the _Hathaway_, people rushed to fill the vacant stations needed for combat. Non essential systems were shut down or placed on standby.

"All stations and decks report ready" said Operations.

"Very good" said Naomi. "Any signs that we have been detected?" she asked.

"None so far, Sir" said the officer at Tactical. "I have nothing on my scopes except the listening post" he added.

"Well I doubt that will be like that for much longer" Naomi muttered. "Increase speed to Warp 6.27"

"Aye" came the response from helm. "Time to target now at 10 minutes" and Naomi nodded. They all waited those few minutes before they reached the listening post, and they dropped out of warp and scanned the area.

"Captain…" called the person filling in at science. "I've been scanning the post, and that's no automated station. I'm picking up several dozen lifesigns aboard. Most of them are around the station's power generator or the sensor array" and Naomi had dark thoughts as she realised from history what that meant.

"They are being used as human shields" she said grimly. "I don't think we can beam them out, so we'll have to do this the old fashioned way. Bring us to a halt just outside navigational phaser range, and hail the station"

"They are not responding"

"Lock weapons and them"

"They're hailing us" said somebody.

"Open a channel" Naomi ordered.

"Audio channel only" said the same person.

"Attention station. This is the _USS Hathaway_. You are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded. Respond please"

"_This is Commander Leo Frank_. _Is that you, Captain Wildman_"

"Yes"

"_Oh thank the gods, we're in need of help. You should know that we were forced to be here. I have been a loyal officer to the Federation, and at first I thought I was doing good. When it turned out otherwise, I was in too deep with them. They put me in charge of the station. I heard what was going on, and when I detected ships heading in your direction, I would disrupt the sensors so they passed by without being the subject of an alert_"

"If you are on our side, then why did you not speak to us before we locked weapons on you?" asked Naomi.

"_I… I thought you was another ship who was coming to blast us to atoms_" and the hesitation was all that Naomi needed for her decision.

"Weapons, reconfirm lock on the target and fire on my command" she said.

"_Captain? We're on your side_" said Frank.

"Nice try, Commander Frank, however while we've been talking, my ship has been scanning you for weak points in your shielding. And we've got several now – so thanks for helping out. Transporter rooms 1, 2 and 3 – energise" Naomi ordered, and she watched a side screen as the hostages were beamed aboard the _Hathaway_.

"Station is arming weapons and has raised shields" reported Weapons.

"Fire" and at Naomi's command, the ship fired phasers at the station.

"Their shields are at 96%" came the report.

"Oh, but somebody seems to have upgraded the shield grid" said Naomi. "Ready the torpe…" she was cut off as the station fired back and sent people flying over the bridge. "DAMAGE REPORT!" shouted Naomi as she gripped onto her chair arms with a death like grip.

"Forward shields are down to 69%. No other damage. No injuries reported" said Ops. "I think they might have overloaded their phasers by a measure because that's stronger then that sort of phaser should be" and Naomi nodded

"Auxilliary power to the forward shields" she ordered. "Fire torpedoes into the station's power generators" and small orbs of a brilliant blue ploughed straight into the listening post's hull and crumpled them badly. The next salvo finished the job and then tore into the inside of the station. They hit the generators and detonated the pair of them. The station began to tear itself to pieces as two lines of explosions ran up the side of the lower hull. "Come on… get to the lifepods. Get to the life pods you idiots" Naomi whispered. "All transporter rooms – lock on to any lifesigns and beam them aboard" she quickly ordered.

"She's going!" shouted the science officer. Moments later, and the station ripped apart like a blazing supernova.

"All hands – brace for impact!" Naomi shouted. The shockwave picked up the _Hathaway_ and threw her like a rag doll away from the debris that was once a station. Every alarm sounded, and consoles started demanding attention from the crew that were scattered around the ship like bits of rubbish. "Turn her into the wave!" Naomi ordered - the only one remaining in her seat.

"She won't answer her helm" reported the helmsman.

"Bridge to Engineering. Fire forward thrusters. Turn us into the wave. Divert all power to the forward shields!" Naomi slammed her hand hard on the chair panel as she opened the comm link.

"_Aye_" came Mezoti's panicked and harried voice. The _Hathaway_ turned herself bow on to the wave and kept a slight forward momentum going to reduce the effect of the shockwave pounding her hull. After a few more seconds, the shock wave subsided and they bridge crew managed to retake their places.

"All stations – damage report!" Naomi ordered. She had a headache from where her head had been slammed into the rest with some force.

"Impulse drive fully functional. Warp Drive fully functional"

"Our phaser system is fully functional. Torpedo system fully operable, Captain"

"Sensor systems have been damaged"

"Shields are at 43%. Hull integrity at 96%. Our tractor beam has been damaged"

"Science station – scan for any lifepods that may have been launched before the station was destroyed" Naomi ordered. "Bridge to sickbay – casualty report"

"No fatalities, Captain. A number of serious injuries, as well as the more minor ones plus cuts, bumps and bruises" came the voice of the _Lakota_'s CMO.

"Do you need more people down there?"

"No, Ma'am. I have enough hands available"

"Keep me posted, Wildman out" Naomi looked at the science officer who didn't notice she was being watched. "Any lifepods?" she asked.

"Still scanning, Captain. The amount of radiation is throwing off my sweeps by a noti… GOT ONE!" she shouted with excitement. "Bearing 010 by 111. Distance is 20,000 kilometres" and Naomi spun round to the helm.

"Helm, intercept course. Tractor beam, stand by to lock on" she ordered.

"Forward tractor beam has been disabled" replied Operations.

"We'll use the aft beam then" and with that they went off to grab the fleeing escape pod. It took a while to slow it to a safe speed, and it passed carefully into one of the small cargo bays.

"The pod is safely aboard" reported the Operations officer.

"Very well" Naomi said. "Helm, set course back to the station – Warp…"

"_SECURITY TO THE BRIDGE!_" somebody shouted over the comm link. The entire bridge crew heard the sounds of struggling, phaser fire and a lot of cries from the injured. "_WE'RE BEING ATTACKED BY THE STATION SURVI…_" there was a cry of pain, and then nothing but silence.

"Oh crap…" said the Weapons officer. Naomi was numb for several seconds before swinging into action.

"GENERAL QUARTERS GENERAL QUARTERS! All hands to General Quarters! All hands repel boarders. Bridge to Engineering, lock the doors and raise a forcefield. Security to the bridge and decks 4 through 10" Naomi jumped out of her seat and crossed to the bridge's munitions locker. During the time before they stole the _Hathaway_, Naomi and Mezoti had grabbed the weapons that had been developed by Seven of Nine to fight the Borg and other powerful foes. They had been put in the bridge locker for safety, and Naomi glanced at the dozen or so stockpiled there before grabbing the personalised phaser rifle that had been made for her as a little girl. When her mother had first heard of the plan, she had objected until it was explained that Naomi would be in as much danger as the rest of the crew.

"Captain?" the helm looked to see Naomi put on a strap that held several spare power packs. "May I respectfully remind the Captain that she is not allowed to go into a combat situation such as this" but Naomi just shut him up as she slapped a power pack into place which lit up the rifle and made it hum slightly with power. She jammed a couple of extra weapons in between the strap and her sides.

"This is _my_ ship, and I am not about to let it fall into enemy hands" she said, and crossed to the Jefferies tube entrance. "You" she pointed at the science officer, "are in charge until I get back. Try to get back to the station. Once you're close enough, then contact Captain Icheb and request more Security people – we're going to need them" she opened the hatch and climbed inside.

"Aye, Captain" the officer replied.

"You have the bridge" and Naomi started the climb down to deck 4.

#

"You three" Mezoti pointed at a couple of terrified Ensigns. "Get on the deck and face the doors" and they understood what she meant. The station's survivors would be firing at chest level, and they couldn't adjust quickly enough to fire at those lying on the floor. Although in theory the forcefield should hold them out, they could always overload the forcefield generator and drop the protective barrier.

"We've jumped to warp" said the _Lakota_'s Chief Engineer, noting the sudden increase in noise from the Warp Core.

"Naomi must be heading towards the station – hoping to get a couple of ships to meet us half way" Mezoti replied. "We don't have many Security officers onboard because we thought the station was just automated" and she turned to the great doors to the Engine Room as she heard phaser fire hit the forcefield on the other side of the door. There was a pause, and then the forcefield was shut down by the explosion that took out the emitters and blew off both of the heavy doors. As the smoke swirled with the flames, shadowy figures came though and started firing.

#

"Lieutenant!" Naomi **shouted** at a man who had control of a few Ensigns under him.

"Captain… the boarders have knocked out internal communications" he informed her.

"Damn… have any of them got to section 9-D?" she asked.

"No, Ma'am. I wasn't there, but the word is that they didn't" the Lieutenant replied.

"Very well. Lieutenant, take two of your men and go to the armoury and guard it. The rest of you will come with me" and Naomi led the way through the corridors and her small squad followed behind her. They were just about to go down one of the ladders to the deck below when they felt a deep seated explosion running through the deck plates and up their feet into their bones. "Captain to bridge…" Naomi tapped her combadge before remembering the internal communications systems were off. She pulled out a tricorder she had kept as a keepsake from _Voyager_ and tied into the _Hathaway_'s internal sensor network. In a few moments she read the notices that alerted anyone reading them to the explosion in the Engine Room. A wave of emotion ran over her as she realised that the survivors from the station had blown open the doors to the compartment – the same one that Mezoti was in.

"Captain…?" one of the group noticed the raw fury that came over her.

"Set your weapons to heavy stun and follow me" and at Naomi's rage filled command, they followed her down the ladder to the next deck down.

#

"Fire!" Mezoti called out. Each side fired weapons at each other, but the attackers had a clear advantage in numbers.

"We've got to protect the core" said an Engineer.

"We can't hold on much longer" said Mezoti. She took aim and fired at a Andorian which crumpled to the deck. Somebody knocked her to the floor as a higher powered bolt whizzed through the air that she had been standing in. Given the explosion, there was no way that they couldn't know what was going on from the bridge. No doubt Naomi was sending down armed teams to aid them even now. Apart from internal communications, they had also disabled the turbolift network, so it would take some time for the reinforcements to arrive. The woman who had been standing next to her was hit by a phaser set to heavy stun, but the next one at her was set to kill. She rolled out of the way, but rolled onto her back and she scrambled to get to her feet. Just as she dragged herself up, she looked the weapon's holder in the eye and saw him press the trigger. Time seemed to slow down as the phaser emitter lit up and the beam shot across the gap between the phaser and Mezoti. Her last thought was of Naomi, and how she had loved every minute of her life together with her wife. The beam caught her in the shoulder and she was flung to the deck lifelessly in a broken heap.

#

"We burst in and fire at anyone attacking the crew" Naomi ordered. The group nodded and they swung round the corner to the Engine Room with weapons firing. The force took down many people, and they went down in nothing more then a business like manner. Sounds of weapons fire came from around the corner near the core, and Naomi went around in time to see the Engineer be murdered whilst unarmed. A bolt missed Mezoti who rolled and ended up on her back. As she struggled to her feet, she was hit by a bolt to the shoulder and flung to the deck like a broken doll.

"MEZOTI!" Naomi screamed, brought her phaser rifle up, passed her thumb over the setting button and fired the weapon. Mezoti's attacker had just enough time to see and register Naomi's shout and appearance before he was drilled right in the head between the eyes with a kill setting. She kept the beam on so long that it blasted through his head and came out the back. Naomi kept hold of the weapon as she crossed to her wife's body and kept whispering pleas to her.

"Oh my word" said an Engineer. "I'll beam you directly to sickbay" and she tapped the nearest console and the pair dissolved in a bath of blue light.

#

Naomi refused to leave Sickbay while Mezoti was treated. Although she had been hit by a phaser set to kill, it had hit the one shoulder that contained a few remaining pieces of the armour the Borg carried. It was connected to a number of important nerves, and taking it out would have made her disabled – so it was just left in. Naomi sat by the bed still with the weapons around her person, and she thought about what she had done. The person she had fired on was the first she had killed by her own actions. Although she had killed people before whilst on _Voyager_'s journey home, it had always been with a clean and detached manner. This time though had been with a mind filled with anger, rage, grief and a mixture of other stuff.

"Captain?" a voice called from the doorway. Naomi turned to see a nurse looking in. "We're approaching the station, and we'll be docking in a few minutes" he said.

"Very well…" Naomi said. "I'll see you later" and she kissed the forehead of her sleeping wife before heading for the CMO's office. "Captain to bridge. Put me in contact with Captain Icheb" and a minute later Icheb was on the screen.

"_Has there been any change_?" he asked. Concern was etched all over his face, and Naomi was glad he was in his ready room. Icheb only let his feelings normally show when he was talking to any of the close group of friends.

"She's still asleep" Naomi replied. "The doctor thinks that she'll wake up in a couple of hours, and then we'll see what the damage is precisely" she added. "We took a number of casualties, so make sure everyone is ready to take them. I want security teams inside the stations cargo bays – we have a number of prisoners to keep under guard" and Icheb nodded.

"_I shall have them sorted out by the time you dock. I will have the station's cargo transporters beam them over in batch groups_" he said.

"Have myself and Mezoti beamed directly to your ship" Naomi said.

"_The _Honour?" Naomi saw Icheb's frown as he thought about the request.

"I know you chose your Chief Medical Officer. That is good enough for me" she said. "The _Hathaway_ only has a limited amount of medical facilities. We weren't expecting to have a number of people try to take over the ship. We've got a number of dead, dying and wounded onboard, and we're running out of medical supplies" and Icheb nodded.

"_I'll get it sorted now, Icheb out_" and his image blinked off the screen. Naomi returned to Mezoti's bedside, and in a few moments she felt the tingling sensation of the transporter beam wash over her.

"Captain on deck!" somebody shouted. Naomi took note of her surroundings, and saw Icheb come around from behind a console in the sickbay of the _Honour_.

"As you were" she said shortly. The entire medical department swung into action and attended to Mezoti's injuries. Icheb took Naomi aside into the office and spoke to her about what had happened. She gave Icheb details of everything from the moment she got the first call, to when the take over was put down hard. Naomi told her friend that she had killed the person who had killed her wife.

"A pity" said Icheb.

"How so?" asked Naomi.

"I would have killed that person myself" was his reply. Naomi looked deep into Icheb's eyes and found that he would have carried out that promise.

"I hope Mezoti will wake up soon" she said.

"My medical team is one of the best in the fleet" Icheb told her. "They will do everything possible to save Mezoti's life. She is special to me, Azan and Rebi also" and he patted Naomi on the hand. "Why don't we go to my quarters?" he suggested.

"I didn't know you liked me in that way, Icheb" Naomi smiled for the first time since she saw Mezoti being hit.

"I do often think about what might have been" Icheb admitted. "I was suggesting that we go there for a strong drink – you look as if you need it" and Naomi looked sandaled.

"You know that real alcohol is contraband aboard ship" she said with a mock glare.

"I don't see much of a problem seeing as we are a renegade vessel" Icheb smiled, and taking his friend by the hand led her out the other Sickbay entrance and towards his quarters.


	5. The War Continues

**The War Continues**

The medical team on the _Honour_ worked many hours, and they managed to keep Mezoti alive in mostly good order. However they needed her to wake up to see if there was any brain damage associated with the phaser set to kill. Although it had hit the remains of the Borg armour, the energy had sparked through the remaining connections to her brain. Knowing there wasn't much she could do, Naomi took the rest of the day in her quarters aboard the station with Icheb and the twins. A report on the coffee table had told her that Cannon and Di'et had been successful in training a number of crew from the _Lakota_ to run the Operations Centre on the station. The prisoners from the station had been placed in the empty cargo bays and then questioned one by one with a Betazoid present. If they were telling the truth about not wanting to be part of the uprising, then they were set free and given comfortable quarters. Those that were found to be lying were sent back to the cargo bay cells and guarded day and night.

"Your plan is risky" said Levitt. She was in a meeting of the other Captains in the wardroom on the station.

"Perhaps" said Naomi, "But if we can hold the location for even an hour or two, then we can get a lot of support from other ships too frightened to come out of hiding otherwise. I will remind you as well that we are running on a limited number of supplies in terms of torpedoes" she added.

"Our aim is to take a number of the heavier starships and cause a diversion in the Savoy system. Starbase 12 will assume that we are attempting a takeover of the tactical station there and send nearly everything we have to attack us. Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet warps into the Starbase, hits the subspace jammers and knocks out the starbase's communications for a short while. We take out the phasers and then beam over a number of boarding parties. We stun everybody that we meet and leave them exactly where they fall. Once the station has been secured, we'll beam over all of the torpedoes to the three waiting _Excelsior_ class vessels. They have some of the largest cargo holds in the fleet after all" Icheb outlined some more of the plan.

"What about the station?" asked another Captain.

"The _Hathaway_ and a number of other ships will remain behind to provide defence. Captain Eckland of the Furies will be in charge of the defensive fleet left behind" Naomi said. "I shall be leading the Starbase 12 assault onboard the _Honour_, and the diversionary fleet will be led by Captain Drake of the _Agrippa_" Naomi said. "Now in order to give the station more preparation time, some of the fleet will be in a circle a half light minute out. Azan, please outline the detection grid you have come up with" she requested of her friend.

"As you know, Section 31 will have access to cloaking technology. Our aim is to use the same tactics that Captain Picard used in the Klingon Civil War. Each ship will send out an active tachyon pulse which will link to the ship either side of it. Any ship attempting to get through to the station must first get past the picket screen" as Azan spoke, ships moved out from the station and carried out his plan. He flicked the screen off and turned towards the Captains. "Any questions?" he asked.

"What would happen if a ship somehow managed to pass through the net undetected?" asked a rather young Captain – younger then Naomi herself.

"Should that happen, then the station's sensors can pick them up well in advance and the guard ships will have enough time to get under weigh and move in to disable or kill" Azan replied.

"Why leave some of the ships behind? Surely the shuttles could do the grid just as well" said another officer.

"We looked into that option" said Naomi, "However we discovered that the shuttles were easily susceptible to overloading the emitters. Starships would not have this issue" she explained. The meeting went on for several more hours before they broke up and returned to their ships. Naomi returned to her quarters with Icheb and the twins to talk freely and have a few drinks. A lot of the talk was naturally about Mezoti's current condition, and the four cared and worried a great deal for their injured friend.

# # # # #

"_Ops to Captain Wildman_" called a voice. It had to repeat three times before Naomi awoke and answered with a headache and grogginess.

"Wildman"

"_Captain, we just got a call for you from Captain Levitt_" Cannon said.

"Patch her through" Naomi sipped some water.

"_It isn't live. She reports that she is picking up some sensor echoes on the extreme edge of sensor range. She is can not determine if it is an attack fleet, or some ships that have lost most of their power. They are emitting a high amount of neutrinos though. She wants to know if she should close in and investigate_" Cannon said.

"Have her clos…" Naomi stopped as she bolted upright and became fully awake.

"_Captain_?"

"Yellow Alert!" Naomi called. Have all ships do the same as well" Naomi slipped on uniform trousers and her boots and raced out the doors – barely getting through them as they opened.

"_Aye, Captain. What is the matter_?" Cannon asked as Naomi took a turbolift up to as close to the _Hathaway_'s docking port as possible.

"A group of ships producing a lot of neutrinos could be masking sensors" Naomi said. "Turn the bridge over to the next senior officer present and get yourself and Rankush down to the _Hathaway_ on the double" she ordered. As she ran on to the ship, she grabbed a number of passing crewmen and ordered them onto the ship with her. "Wildman to bridge"

"_Bridge here_"

"Stand by to depart the moment Commanders Cannon and Di'et have boarded. I am on my way to the bridge now. Set course for the last reported position of the _Challenger_ – Warp 1" and there was a pause as the officer on the bridge contemplated the thought of going to warp inside a solar system.

"_Aye_" came the eventually reply.

"Put me through to Captain Icheb" Naomi said, stepping inside a turbolift.

"_Icheb here_" he knew when to be all business.

"I think we're about to face a massive assault on the fleet and the station" Naomi told him. "The _Challenger_ is picking up a number of contacts emitting sensor blocking stuff. This would be great for Section 31 to catch us with our pants down. I want you to get all the ships that are combat ineffective back behind the station. All other vessels are to stand by to go to Red Alert and engage possible incoming enemy ships" Naomi said, stepping out of the turbolift and onto the bridge.

"_At least take a few other ships with you_" Icheb said. "_You wouldn't stand a chance against those ships owned directly by Section 31_"

"If it is what I think, then we'll need every ship capable of fighting to surround the station" Naomi said as she slipped down into the Captain's chair.

"_Very well_" Icheb said. "_Good luck, Icheb out_"

"Commanders Cannon and Di'et are aboard" called out somebody.

"Seal the airlock. Release docking clamps. Thrusters at station keeping" Naomi ordered.

"Aye Captain"

"Docking clamps released, Ma'am"

"Wildman to Commanders Cannon and Di'et. Report to the bridge on the double" Naomi tapped her chair arm.

"_We're on our way_" called Di'et.

"Lets get under weigh" Naomi said. "Aft thrusters one quarter. Port and starboard at station keeping" and slowly the _Hathaway_ moved away from the station as a number of shuttles, work pods and starships began a complex dance in response to her orders.

"We're clear of the station" reported the helmsman.

"Set course for the last reported location of the _Challenger _and engage at Warp 2" Naomi ordered.

"Aye, Captain" and a moment later they jumped to warp.

"Reporting for duty" said Di'et as she and Cannon dashed onto the bridge.

"Welcome aboard" Naomi said grimly. "Stations please" and the pair took the places of Helm and Tactical.

"Approaching last known coordinates of the_ Challenger_" said somebody at the Operations console.

"Drop us out of Warp" Naomi ordered, and the ship slowed down to impulse.

"I am picking up a large number of contacts on the edge of sensor range" Cannon said. "On screen" and the viewscreen displayed several grey blobs in the centre of the screen.

"Magnify" ordered Naomi. The screen blurred for a moment before it refocused and displayed the blobs in a better quality. At the edge of sensor range sat a half dozen _Defiant_s and two _Galaxy_ class vessels.

"Jesus…" somebody whispered.

"Hail the lead ship" Naomi ordered.

"No response"

"They're moving" said Cannon, and the other vessels were moving in closer to the _Hathaway_. "I've been looking at those _Galaxy_s, and one of those is the _Challenger_. Either she's been taken over or she was never on our side" Cannon said. Naomi closed her eyes and breathed slowly through nose.

"What do we do?" asked Di'et. Naomi didn't answer for a long while.

"Captain?" Cannon looked over at Naomi. The young woman had been hoping she would never have to give this order in her career or her life, but she knew she now had to.

"Red Alert! Shields up! Charge phasers and ready forward torpedo bays" the bridge dimmed as the ship went into battle mode. "Target the leading _Galaxy_ and stand by to fire" Naomi said.

"Target locked" Cannon said.

"Hail the fleet – the one in front of us" Naomi said.

"Still no answer"

"Open a channel to them, and keep it open" Naomi said. "This is Captain Naomi Wildman of the Federation Starship _USS Hathaway_. You are ordered to stand down your weapons systems and come to a complete stop. Failure to comply with this will result in your being fired upon. I give you 30 seconds to comply. Wildman out" and she watched them come ever closer.

"They have raised shields and their weapons systems just went hot" Cannon said.

"Commander Cannon, open fire" Naomi gave the order clearly and concisely.

"Aye" and the fight began as she launched a couple of torpedoes with some well aimed phaser strikes.

# # # # #

"We're picking up weapon fire" said Icheb's science officer. Icheb just sat in his seat and thought hard. Naomi was his superior officer, and had given him an order. However she had one little ship that was getting pounded by the incoming Section 31 loyal vessels.

"Captain? Your orders, Sir?" his Acting First Officer pressed. The Chief Engineer knew that Icheb was always a man who did what he was ordered to – except firing on one of his greatest friends.

"I've got my orders" said Icheb after a while. "But am I leaving Naomi in danger?" he asked.

"Naomi needs us" said Azan.

"There's no way she can take on all of those ships by herself" Rebi added. "The _Hathaway_ doesn't have a full crew aboard, and, even forgetting that, the upgrades to her still won't allow her to take on that many vessels without being blown up" and Icheb thought hard about it.

"Oh, to hell with this. Set an intercept course – maximum warp. Red Alert! All hands, man your battlestations!" and the _Honour_ brought its immense and powerful weapons online. "Azan, Rebi. I'd like you to take one of the aft stations. You know what to do" and Icheb swung round to the helm. "Engage" and the ship jumped all the way to the limit. Five seconds later and it dropped out of warp, moved in front of the battered _Hathaway_ and engaged the enemy fleet.

#

"Incoming vessel!" shouted Cannon. "Heavy cruiser… it's the _Honour_" she added after checking her readouts.

"Rankush – evasive pattern Alpha 1" Naomi ordered.

"Aye, Captain"

"Damage report"

"Shields are down to 23%. I'm reading some minor buckling on the ablative armour" said the engineering officer on the bridge.

"Phasers are nearly drained. Our photon torpedoes are exhausted. Quantums are down to two per forward tube" Cannon said. Moments later and the ship was shaken violently as every _Defiant_ made a pass with their phaser cannons on the old starship. Even with the armour on her hull, and the extra power to the shields, she couldn't take that punishment for much longer.

"Are we dead?" Di'et asked as she climbed back into her chair. She had been thrown around by the lurch to starboard when the ship was hit.

"Uncertain" said the science officer.

"Report!" Naomi shouted over the din of alarms and voices from all over the ship.

"That last hit took out shields. Our forward armour has been breached, and torpedo launchers are inoperative" Cannon said.

"Take the launchers offline and divert the power to phasers" Naomi said. "We'll do as much damage as we can before going down"

"Aye Captain" Cannon said. She fired on anything that was not the _Honour_ but the weakened phasers didn't do much in the way of damage.

"Reading multiple vessels incoming" said the science officer.

"This is it" Naomi said. "Commander Di'et, set course for the _Challenger_ and prepare to ram at warp speed" she ordered.

"Our warp drive is offline" said Di'et.

"All power to the engines. Set for full velocity ram" Naomi ordered.

"You might want to belay that" said the science officer, and on the flickering screen, she could see the majority of the ships from the station slow to impulse and start to form a defensive screen around the _Hathaway_.

"Incoming message" said the Ops officer.

"_Icheb to Naomi. get your warp drive back online and get the hell back to the station. We'll cover your retreat_"

"I go when you go" Naomi replied. "Target weapons and propulsion systems" she added. "I want to disable those vessels – not destroy them" and she heard him giving orders to somebody who sounded very much like Azan.

"_We shall attempt to do so. Just get your warp drive back online. Icheb out_"

"You heard the man – I want that warp drive back online" Naomi ordered.

"Captain, I can get phaser power to half strength if we take the power from the shields" Cannon said.

"Do it" Naomi said. "Rankush, engage an evasive course that allows us to target the most vessels without getting too many hits" and the elderly and battered ship resumed its attack with the surround screen punching a way through for it.

#

"Captain!" the first officer called.

"We're staying…" said the Captain. Most of the other ships had done an about turn and warped out of the system and back to Section 31 held space. Only the ship they were on, the _Juno_ and the _Vesta_ remained in the fight. Four others had been disabled and were under tow to Voyager Station.

"The _Juno_ is disengaging…" shouted the security chief. On the screen, the _Defiant_ class ship turned from the battle and jumped to warp. "_Vesta_'s standing down" he said a moment later.

"Incoming message from the _Hathaway_"

"_Wildman to _Heracles._ You're outnumbered and your phasers are almost gone. Surrender or be destroyed_"

"Target the _Hathaway_ and fire everything we have left" the Captain said.

"They'll destroy us" said the first officer. "I'm not about to let you get us all killed" she protested. The Captain swung round in his chair to face her.

"Are you questioning my authority?" he asked.

"No, Sir. I am relieving you of command. Remove Captain Hall from the bridge" and crew looked at each other. "NOW!" and the four crewmen at the aft consoles came down into the command pit and dragged Hall from the bridge kicking and screaming. "Wildman from Commander Hudson. The _Heracles_ surrenders. I say again, the _Heracles_ surrenders. We are standing down" and she watched as the ships came to a halt but kept a lock on the ship. "Stand down weapons and shields. All hands, this is the First Officer. We have surrendered to Captain Wildman's forces. They will be boarding us in a few moments. I want all hand weapons to be placed on the deck in front of you and hands on your heads" and as she finished speaking, she saw the pillars of blue light beaming over a boarding party to the bridge.

"Who is the senior officer present?" asked the Commander in charge of the groups.

"I am. Commander Hudson, First Officer"

"I hereby take command of this vessel by order of Captain Wildman. You are all to be confined to quarters with the exception of your damage control parties, your helmsman and the Engineering crew currently in the Engine Room" Cannon said.

"Understood" and Hudson was escorted off the bridge with a number of others. Cannon took the Captain's chair and addressed the helmsman. "Ensign, set a direct course for the station, and engage at full impulse" and the Ensign complied with the order.

"_Engineering to bridge_"

"This is the bridge" Cannon said.

"_Engineering is secured, Commander_" said a voice Cannon was not familiar with.

"Make sure they do nothing that sabotages the ship" she said.

"_Aye, Commander_" and the channel closed.

"Ensign, report our position relative to the _Vesta_"

"100 kilometres off the starboard beam" came the reply. Cannon noticed that the Ensign was shaking with a bad case of shock.

"When did you graduate the Academy?" she asked.

"Six weeks ago, Sir" the Ensign said.

"And do you believe in the takeover?" Cannon enquired.

"No, Sir" the Ensign turned the seat round to face her. "I thought we could do with an aggressive attitude towards the more hostile races, but that was it for me. I was sickened by the bombing of Spacedock, and I never believed that Captain Wildman would have done something like that. I did wonder why _Voyager_ had appeared at Starbase 12 without her being onboard" and the Ensign turned back round to pay attention to her console.

"Are you sure of that?" Cannon asked. If that was still the case, then they could get every capable ship together and go and free the vessel after taking over the station. If their luck was holding, then they could get a number of other ships as well.

"Yes, Sir" the Ensign replied. "I joined the _Heracles_ there four weeks ago. The ship was just sitting there without power" he tapped a few buttons on his controls to bring the _Heracles_ into the middle of the formation. "I had to go along because of my family. I have two little girls onboard, Commander, If I had refused, then Captain Hall may well have killed them both as punishment" and Cannon promised that she would see he was given quarters on the station where he could be with his daughters.

"You will have to undergo an interrogation by a panel of senior officers" she told him. "There will also be a mind reader in attendance" and the Ensign nodded carefully.

"I thought as much" he said. "May I call my daughters?" he asked.

"Certainly" Cannon agreed. "Use the main viewscreen if you want" and the young officer hesitated for a long while.

"I know I am not in a position to demand things, but can you hide the phaser you're wearing?" and Cannon jammed it between the left side of the Captain's seat and her left thigh. The Ensign called his daughters and told them that they had to stay in their quarters because some very bad people were outside. They talked for a few minutes before he signed off with a heavy heart.

# # # # #

"From what it appears, some of the captured crews seem to be on our side" said a Vulcan officer from the _Honour_.

"We have heard the same type of story throughout each vessel" said her Trill companion. "Some of them had their families threatened with execution if they didn't comply with their orders" and Naomi nodded at the end of the report.

"Confine those people to quarters aboard their ships, with the exceptional cases being allowed to stay on the station" she ordered.

"I shall get it done as soon as possible" said Di'et. "It sould take no more then a few hou…"

"Honour_ to Captain Icheb_"

"Icheb here"

"_Captain, Commander Wildman has awoken and is very… vocal_" the voice said.

"Lock on to my signal and standby to beam myself, Captain Wildman, Azan and Rebi directly to Sickbay" Icheb said.

"_Aye, Sir_"

"Cannon, you have the station. Sort out everything you can, and leave me a report on my desk for when I get back" Naomi said. "Wildman to _Honour_ – Four to beam aboard"

"_Energising_"

"NAOMI!" Mezoti screamed at the top of her voice.

"MEZOTI!" Naomi screamed just as loudly. She was overjoyed to see her wife alive and seemingly well. There had been times that she thought the worse would happen, and that Mezoti would either be brain damaged or dye from her injuries.

"Clear the deck" Icheb said quietly, and the Sickbay cleared of all but the small group of friends.

"I thought I had lost you…" Naomi sobbed.

"I thought that I was going to die" admitted her wife. "When I saw that phaser discharge, my first thought was that it was the end of me. I kept thinking of our time together and how much I enjoyed it together" and there was a lot of hugging and kissing after that between the friends – even Icheb. Mezoti was released from Sickbay that evening and Naomi took her back to their quarters for a type of relaxation that was not exactly on the Starfleet Medical treatment plan.

#

A number of Tactical specialists from ships throughout the fleet came together to work on a plan to board and take Starbase 12 for as much time as it took for them to get _Voyager_ and the other ships out of space station. The currant plan was to use every _Excelsior_ class vessel as very large gunboats and to fire at the shield emitters and the weakest spots. A small crew would be put onboard the captured _Defiant_s and use the ships' phaser cannons to make strafing runs on the Starbase's phaser pods and the dorsal phaser strip.

Vessels like the _Miranda_ class ship would engage any ships on patrol because their high manoeuvrability would make them a pain to target. The larger vessels like the _Galaxy_ class ships would remain behind with a number of damaged vessels to give the station and the drydock a degree of protection. The _Akira_ class vessels would warp to the Savoy 1 Tactical Station and cause enough trouble to make it look like a full scale raid was about to happen. Naomi, Mezoti, Azan and Rebi would be with the main attack fleet aboard the _Hathaway_ until they had control of the Starbase. They would then transport aboard _Voyager_ and bring her engines online and get her out of the dock and back to Voyager Station for arming, storing and crewing. Despite the fact she was over 20 years old, the ship was still very much in her prime. There was also a preference on the part of Naomi over the _Hathaway_. While she didn't hate the vessel, it was common knowledge amongst the fleet that she wanted _Voyager_ to be rescued. In fact, that whole aim was a major mission objective.

"Another lot of people dead…" Naomi bitterly slammed the PADD onto the desk in front of her.

"It can not be helped" said Cannon. "You shouldn't blame yourself, but instead blame those that caused the deaths to happen" she added. Naomi shot her a narrowed glare.

"That doesn't make it any better" she said. "If the Doctor were here…" Naomi sighed.

"Would you like me to call him?" asked Di'et.

"I meant _the_ Doctor. _My_ Doctor" Naomi said.

"He'd have saved everyone in four minutes without breaking into a sweat…" Naomi was angry with herself. She felt as if she was to blame for all the deaths that had taken place. "Any news from our listening posts?" she asked.

"Just faint echoes" Mezoti said. "There are a lot of hit and run attacks going on… vessels exchanging fire and then running off" she added.

"Anybody that we know of?" Azan asked.

"We heard the name _Enterprise_ mentioned as leading a group of ships at Asthestos 4. Seems Captain Picard has gathered a number of the fleet around him" Mezoti replied.

"Do you think he knows of us?" asked Icheb.

"If he has been listening to enemy traffic like we have, then the answer is more then likely that he has been. However, he was attacking a supply base there and not based there himself" Mezoti explained.

"Astestos…" mused Naomi. "Where would Captain Picard use as a base? He wouldn't want to overtax his fleet's engines too much, so somewhere within a 12 hour travel at Warp 7 I should say" she looked at Icheb who had done some exploring in that region when he had served on the _Dragon_ after _Voyager_'s decommissioning.

"He could be using any number of places, and if he has a fleet transport ship with him, then he may not need one at all. However, I would hazard a guess at his location in the Dytallax system. It contains an abandoned mining facility, suffers from periodic solar flares that make Warp travel impossible to all but expert navigators… I would go there if I were not here" Icheb said.

"How long would it take for us to get there?" asked Cannon.

"It is three days away at Warp 9.96" Icheb said. "The _Hathaway_ would never make it – not with her elderly warp core. Most of the other ships could make it though" and there was a long silence which was broken by Naomi.

"Icheb, I want you to be prepared to depart for Dytallax. This will be a one ship mission. We can't risk anything else being picked up. And if Captain Picard is there, then things might get a little bit easier for us. How soon can you have the _Honour_ readied for leaving?" she asked Icheb.

"Three hours. Maybe two. I would need to recall a number of key people, and I happen to know they are conducting vital tasks for the well being of the fleet. Three hours is a better time frame" he replied.

"Very well" Naomi replied. "Have your ship ready to go no later then 17:30. Dismiss" and Icheb nodded before heading out the office for the Ops transporter pad.

"Are you going with them?" asked Cannon.

"I only wish I could, but the fleet needs me here. If I go and I'm captured or killed, then morale will suffer greatly. No, I shall have to send Icheb alone on this one. I know him and his tactics very well. I taught him a lot of what he knows, and I trust him implicitly. He will get the job done – I know it" Naomi said.

"You know, if those ships that countered Captain Picard's fleet staged out of Starbase 12, there would a lot of ships out of position and if we could hold it for just an hour or so, then we could take the ships that are being held there and get the hell out of the place" Di'et said.

"True" said Rebi, "But they might have moved those ships in the few weeks since they were last spotted" he pointed out.

"Well we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" Naomi said. "Alright people, this is what we'll do. The _Honour_ will leave the station for Dytallax this evening. When she is a quarter of the way there, she'll broadcast a message in the clear announcing she is heading to Betazed. A number of the ships at the Starbase will go after her, and that should leave the Starbase undefended a great deal. We will take most of our bigger ships for the assault and leave the _Defiant_s behind with the _Miranda_s to take care of the station. We will not have a lot of people to man the ships we're taking, so ask around those ships we just took and see who wants to switch sides for real. They can then return to their duties aboard their ships, but we'll station some of people aboard for security reasons. If we are really, really lucky then we might just pull this off" Naomi gave out her orders.

"We can have the ships ready to go by no later 22:00" said Di'et.

"Very well. I will be commanding the fleet from the _Hathaway_. Azan, Rebi. You are technically civilians, but I would appreciate your assistance on this mission. Denise, Rankush. You two are to remain here and command the station jointly. Captain Viking of the _Walker_ is the overall commander until we get back" Naomi looked at each of the named persons in turn.

"Aye, Captain" they said, and the group left the office to begin their tasks.

"Commander Wildman, please stay. I need to go over some things with you" Naomi said loudly.

"Like…?" Mezoti asked.

"Our bed for a start…" Naomi growled, and had the computer beam them down to their quarters.


	6. Liberating

**Liberating **

"We are approaching Starbase 12" said Azan. He and his twin had arrived on the bridge a half hour before and summarily removed the on duty Helm and Ops officers from their stations.

"Very well" Naomi said. The pair had complained to Naomi the moment she had arrived. Her reply had been to not bother Azan or Rebi, and so the pair had been forced to take two very small stations at the very back of the bridge. "Red Alert!" she ordered. "Battlestations" and the ship came alive with alarms and calls for the crew to report to all essential duty stations.

"All decks report cleared for action" Rebi reported.

"Azan, take us out of warp. Bring us in under impulse power – ahead one half" Naomi said.

"Aye" Azan replied. A number of the bridge crew showed their disapproval at the incorrect response, but kept their tongues because of who was sat in the centre seat.

"I show four _Nebula_ class vessels surrounding the station. I am also reading three _Defiant_ class ships leaving the interior dock" Rebi said.

"Lock onto the _Defiant_s and prepare to fire. Hail the Starbase and route the call to the rest as well" Naomi smoothed her uniform jacket and adjusted her posture somewhat.

"You're on" Rebi said.

"This is Captain Naomi Wildman of the USS _Hathaway_. You are hereby ordered to stand down prepare to be boarded by order of the fleet commander. Failure to comply will result in your being considered a threat. We _will_ fire upon you. Your reply, please" Naomi said.

"_Go to hell_" said a booming male voice.

"All ships are being targeted" said Rebi.

"All ships, open fire" Naomi ordered. A barrage of phaser and torpedo fire was exchanged with the station and the ships defending it. They danced a complicated dance, and the smaller _Defiant_s attempted to break up the firing of the _Exclesior_ and _Ambassador_s by doing dummy ramming courses on them, then pulling up at the last moment and hitting their sensors.

#

"Damage to deck 145" said a voice.

"Doesn't matter much. Continue firing on the _Hathaway_. Once that ship is destroyed, the rest will either turn and run, or else surrender to us" said the commanding officer.

"Aye, Sir" said the Commander.

"Have all vessels continue to target the other ships' sensor arrays and main power systems" the Captain ordered. "We can hold out long enough for the rest of our ships to get back here from chasing down the _Honour_, and then we'll really go to town on these bastards" and the Commander was about to agree when he noticed something.

"Captain, I just realised that the _Furies_ has not engaged the enemy vessels. She's running at optimal efficency, but that is about it. No damage I can detect…"

"Hail the ship"

"Channel open"

"_Furies_ this is the station commander. I am ordering you to fire upon those ships attacking us. Do it now, or I will assume you are one of them and react accordingly"

"_Somebody has infected our computers with a virus. We are attempting to restart our computers. Estimate four minutes until complete_" said a cultured female voice.

"Just you be certain you get into the fight, Captain Eckland, or I will blow you out of the stars. Starbase out"

#

"Now isn't that interesting…" said Naomi. The entire bridge had been listening in on the channel, and Rebi said that there was nothing wrong with the _Furies_' computer controls.

"It certainly is" replied the acting weapons officer.

"Rebi, what is the distance of the ship from the station?" she asked. There was a longish pause as he slid sideways from Azan rotating the _Hathaway_ to port to avoid a couple of torpedoes heading their way.

"They are just inside phaser range of the station, although at that distance the shields would barely be drained" Rebi said.

"Has she fired upon us or anybody else?" Naomi asked.

"No"

"Okay, lets see where she stands. Azan, put us on a course to intercept the _Furies_. I want to pass right in front of her when we get there"

"Understood" Azan turned the ship about and entered the new course heading.

"Rebi, hail the _Furies_"

"Channel open"

"Wildman to Captain Eckland. We are advancing on your position, but we are not preparing to fire. I say again: we are not preparing to fire. If you do not lock onto us, then we'll consider you as being non hostile" and onward the _Hathaway_ flew. Naomi knew Eckland from a gathering at an Admiral's Banquet a couple of years before, and had talked at length about ways around attending such events. It was a commonly held belief that Captain Picard would deactivate the _Enterprise_'s transponder and hide in a nebula for the entire length.

"No response" Rebi said.

"Has she locked on?"

"No" replied the weapons officer. "However she may be waiting for us to get closer for a cleaner shot"

"Well thank you, Lieutenant, for that piece of good news" Azan muttered. "Closing to within point blank range" he added.

"Lower our shields as we pass by her" Naomi had to repeat the order before the Lieutenant would comply. The _Hathaway_ sailed undefended past the forward weapons of the _Furies_ and was not fired upon. "Wildman to attack fleet. _Furies_ is non combatant. _Furies_ non combatant" and the ship shuddered as it was hit by weapons fire.

"Starbase has opened fire on us" Rebi said. "Minor damage to the starboard nacelle. Slight damage to the starboard power coupling" he reported.

"Shields are back up, Captain" the weapons officer was really starting to annoy Naomi now.

"Helm alee, Azan" Naomi said.

"Helm's alee"

"Always wanted to say that" grinned Naomi. "Status report on the battle" she ordered.

"Seven of our ships have been disabled or destroyed. Most of the others have taken varying degrees of damage" said the science officer. "Enemy ships are continuing to attack, but they have suffered massive damage to a number of ships. Three ships destroyed, one disabled and one partially crippled" and Naomi couldn't believe their luck.

"All ships to cease fire on the remaining combatant vessel. Switch fire to shield and phaser installations on the station" she said. "With most of the ships disabled or destroyed, we've got a tactical advantage on the station. Order all ships to lower port and starboard shields and divert power to the forward shield grid" and Rebi passed on the orders.

"All ships acknowledge" he reported.

"Science, I want a scan of the station's compliment. How many people are onboard it at the moment?" Naomi asked.

"I am reading 4000 lifesigns, though a good deal appear to be children and pets" the science officer reported.

"Well we need to get them under control" said Naomi. "Are there any weak spots in the shields at all?" she asked.

"Around the space doors" reported the science officer. "As you know, during the Dominion War, a number of starbases were modified to allow the passage of ships in and out while their shields were up. As a result, shields in that area are weaker then those on the other side of the Starbase" and Naomi quickly came up with a new plan.

"Wildman to attack fleet. Concentrate all fire on the shields around the space doors. Be ready to beam over boarding parties to all areas of the base" she ordered.

"The fleet has acknowledged" said Rebi.

"Hail the Starbase"

"They are not responding"

"Hail them anyway, and keep the channel open" Naomi waited until Rebi cued her. "This is Captain Wildman. Your ships have either declared themselves non combatant, destroyed or have been disabled. I am giving you a chance to surrender without any more bloodshed. You have one minute until we open fire. One minute starting from now" she looked at the screen which was showing the area of the space doors. "Order all ships to target that area with every last firecracker, but hold fire" Naomi then looked aft to the science station. "What her damage?" she asked.

"The station has taken a few hits to multiple decks. Shields are down to 78% overall. Phaser systems are fully functional" the officer reported.

"Thirty seconds" Rebi called.

"Wildman to all ships. Standby to open fire on the designated co-ordinates" Naomi gripped the arms of her chair tightly.

"Ten seconds" Rebi called.

"For what we are about to do…" a voice said softly in prayer.

"Times up"

"All ships open fire" and every ship still able to fire weapons unleashed their arsenal on the particular part of the station.

"Shields weakening" called Rebi.

"Divert power from the aft shields to compensate. Stand by all boarding parties" Naomi ordered.

"Shields are down!" called the science officer unexpectedly.

"Away all parties. All ships stand down and retreat from phaser range. Wildman to _Furies_ approach us with your shields up. We will protect you until this is over"

"_Understood, Captain Wildman_" came a cool reply. A few phaser shots and torpedoes impacted on the space doors but they held from the assault.

#

"Keep going!" called the team leader.

"We can't, Sir. There's just too much phaser fire to stop" and that was true enough. The moment they had been beamed aboard, they had come under heavy attack from the station's crew. Nonetheless, the boarding parties pressed on and continued to stun anybody that they could get in their sights. The other side were firing phasers set to kill, and a number had already been lost by accurate strikes.

"How far are we from the engineering plant?" asked the officer in charge.

"Sixty feet that way, Sir" the team leader replied. "And there must be three dozen people shooting at us in defence of it" he added.

"Damn…"

#

"The space doors have been disabled. It'll take weeks to get them open again" said the science officer.

"Can we blast them open?" Azan asked.

"We would need more torpedoes then we actually have in the fleet" the weapons officer said.

"What the hell was that?" asked Naomi. The _Hathaway_ had been shaken by something impacting her hull.

"One of the disabled vessels regained control and fired on us" the science officer reported.

"Damage report!" Naomi ordered from Rebi.

"Shields and weapons are down" he replied. "Major damage to the aft of the vessel. I'm reading a cascade –"

"_Engineering to bridge_"

"Go ahead" Naomi slapped the button on her chair.

"_Captain, one of those torpedoes hit our ventral plating. We've got a warp core overload_"

"Can you shut it down?" Naomi asked.

"_No, Captain. We've lost all control to the warp core_" the engineer said.

"Very well. We'll get to a safe distance and then eject the core"

"_No good, Captain. The ejection system has been destroyed. I estimate that we have two minutes until the core breaches_"

"Right" Naomi ignored the looks of horror on the faces of her bridge crew. "Put me through to the other ships, Rebi"

"You're on"

"This is Naomi Wildman. The _Hathaway_ has been hit, and we've got a warp core breach in one minute forty five seconds. We're abandoning ship. Beam us all off except for myself, Azan and Rebi, and then fall back to a more distant position" She was answered by multiple replies, and then very quickly nearly everybody was off.

"The ship has been evacuated" Rebi said.

"Azan, plot us a course directly to the space doors – ramming speed. Rebi, start transmitting every piece of information you can to the other ships. I want to hold a formal investigation into what exactly happened" Naomi ordered.

"Understood"

"Proceeding"

"Computer, begin Captain's Log"

"_Recording_"

"Captain's Log, supplemental. The _Hathaway_ has been hit and will shortly be destroyed by a warp core breach. We have abandoned the vessel after setting a direct course for one last target. This ship has served her many crews well, and she will go down fighting. Captain out" Naomi paused. "Send that out as well. Do we have phasers and torpedoes?" she asked.

"Yes" replied Rebi.

"Then fire them for as long as we can. She might be going down, but this old girl will go down with guns blazing" Naomi said.

"I think she'd like that" said Azan.

"_One minute to warp core breach_" the computer calmly spoke.

"We'll just have enough time to hit the doors" Azan said.

"Phasers depleated. Torpedoes have been completely exhausted" Rebi added from the Ops station.

"Set the computer to beam us to the station before we hit" Naomi said, taking one long look around the bridge for the last time.

"It would not be very advantageous if we transported _after_ we hit" Azan grinned from the helm.

"_Thirty seconds to warp core breach_" the computer announced calmly.

"That's near enough as damn it" Naomi said. Rebi hit the button on the Ops console and the trio were beamed off the _Hathaway_ and onto the station. The ship continued on and ploughed right into the giant doors which stopped the ships from getting in or out of the gigantic dock. It obliterated them into atoms, and caused some damage to the surrounding area as well. The impact and detonation of the _Hathaway_ caused the station to tremble, and consoles, panels and power lines all blew. The ships outside wondered what had happened to Naomi, Azan and Rebi.

#

The computer had placed them a quarter of the station around from _Voyager_, and Naomi and the twins advanced along the corridors and passage ways towards their old ship. They came under sporadic fire and the trio returned it in kind – though they only fired to stun.

"How far are we?" asked Azan. He was bleeding from a cut to his forehead.

"We are about 900ft away from the transfer tunnel" Rebi replied. He poked his head out and fired several times down the corridor.

"And with half of the known universe between us and it…" Naomi growled as she fired a couple of shots from her phaser rifle at the corridor bulkhead.

"But we are only several yards from a docking tower" Rebi continued. "It is possible that we can gain entry and then access the computers from there. Although most functions could be blocked from the main control room, we would still be able to complicate their responses" and it was agreed they should try that, at the very least, they could coordinate the boarding and take over of the station. A number of teams joined the trio and they went down the corridor in a skirmish line - ducking and shooting when they had to. Naomi tried the door control but it refused to open, and it remained shut when she entered her authorisation code into it.

"Can we fire phaser rifles at it?" she asked.

"They would only make a small scratch, Captain" said a team leader. "But I've got a DetPack that would do the trick" she grinned as she pulled the small box from a holder on her belt. The rest of them gave her cover whilst she set it on the middle of the door, set the timer and fuse before running off at a high speed. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" she yelled just as the DetPack exploded. There was a roar, a few seconds of fire and a lot of smoke and debris rushing around.

"Go, go, go!" Naomi yelled, and they charged down the corridor to the docking tower and the trio plus four others went inside. The rest stayed outside to guard the room. No doubt the station's defenders would send a large squad to stop what they were about to do.

"Accessing central data banks" Azan said.

"Checking status of ships" Rebi added. Naomi looked at the cavernous dock through the wide windows, and saw a couple of differing starship classes and…

"_VOYAGER_!" Naomi yelled in delight. The twins looked up from their work to gaze upon their old ship. It was completely powered down, and didn't have lights in any of the windows. "Rebi, status of _Voyager_" she demanded.

"Checking…" he said. "The ship appears to be completely cold, Naomi. She is connected to the Starbase by an access tunnel, but not to the umbilicals. I have a note here saying that parts have been removed from her" and he heard Naomi growl with anger.

"Is the warp core intact?" she asked.

"Yes" Rebi replied. "If you are planning what I think you are planning, then I will require fifteen minutes to get the battery systems back online. We would need to use EVA suits because all the breathable air has been removed from the ship" and Azan took over from the next console along.

"Once we have battery systems online, it would only be a matter of moments before we could get the thrusters working. It would take some hours before the impulse drive and warp core is back" he said.

"And we've got to get between here and there" said Naomi.

"Not now" said Azan. "Now we have control of this docking tower, we can beam ourselves aboard _Voyager_. As Rebi said just now, there is no breathable air aboard. However, there is a small emergency closet containing several EVA suits several compartments back the way we came"

"You, you and you" Naomi pointed out three of the team. "Go there and get me three suits. I am going to board _Voyager_ and get her out of here. If any of the boarding teams has ever flown at helm before, see if you can get the other ships out of dock as well. Actually…" Naomi turned back to Azan, "What is the status of the other vessels?" she asked

"_Excalibur_, _Victory_ and _Triumphant_ are on station power. They have back up power running onboard ship, and all systems read as normal" Azan replied. "I read a few people gathered at the airlocks for each of the ships, plus what could be a skeleton crew split between the bridge and engineering" and he finished speaking as the three boarding party members returned with the suits.

"Get at least somebody at their helms, and try to get the ships out of dock. We have a surplus of people now, and we can give them the ships to crew" Naomi put on her suit with practiced ease.

"What else should we do?" asked the senior team leader present.

"I want you to gain entry to those ships. But I also want you to grab the command centre and hold it. Once we have that, we've more or less got the station under our control" Naomi closed her helmet and checked the seals worked. Once that was done, she signalled Rebi to engage the automatic transporter settings. They vanished in the familiar blueish white sparkles, and the left behind team went to the corridor outside and started to carry out Naomi's orders.

#

The transporter deposited them in a darkened corridor on _Voyager_. The trio activated the lanterns on their suits' wrists and shone them around.

"_Hi, honey_" muttered Rebi. "_We're hoooooommmmeeee_" and Naomi giggled like a little girl. He and his twin had developed a fondness for old earth films over the many years since they had been rescued from the Borg. She scanned the area with a tricorder and pinpointed their location.

"We're on Deck 6" she said. "Just forward of the torpedo magazines. There's nobody aboard, but that might not include people in stealth suits" and the twins knew what she meant. Stealth suits were EVA suits with sensor absorbing materials built in, and it was very hard to detect a person without actually having them in visual range using Mark One Eyeball.

"We'll get down to engineering and see what we can do" said Azan.

"I'll make my way up to the bridge" Naomi replied. "Once we get power up, you don't know if any of those other ships might fire upon us. We'll need to get out of here as quickly as possible. Keep the channel open though, and always have a tricorder and a phaser ready. We don't know _who_ might be on here" and with that they split up to head in different directions.

The darkened corridors gave Naomi a bad case of nerves, and the beam of her twin lights cast shadows on the walls. She got to a Jefferies tube and started the long climb up to the bridge. It took her nearly forty five minutes to climb the ladders in the suit, but she reached the hatchway to the bridge. Just before she opened it, she held onto the rungs with one hand and took her phaser out with the other. After that little piece of danger, there was disappointment of sorts as there was nobody on the darkened bridge. All the signs from before _Voyager_ had been taken from Spacedock were on the bulkheads. It seemed as if just taking the ship was the main goal, and a check of the ready room and the briefing room also showed the signs still present.

"_Naomi_?"

"Yes?" she replied.

"_Azan, here. We're just getting ready to engage battery systems_"

"I'm at the helm now. Let me know the minute you have thrusters online"

"_Acknowledged_" Azan said. Naomi sat on the cold, dark and empty bridge until her suit's speaker crackled again.

"_Battery systems tied into thrusters and the helm console only_" Rebi said.

"Understood" Naomi saw the helm partially light up. "What's the news with anything else?" she asked.

"_We'll get back to you on that_" Azan replied.

"Can you disengage the transfer tunnel?" she asked, realising that it was still attached to the ship.

"_I am unable to do so. Several operations have been locked from use_" Azan said. Naomi knew that if they were to get _Voyager_ out of the dock, then they needed to literary rip her fro…

"You two!" she called urgently over the suit comm link. "Hold on to something very sturdy. I'm going to fire the thrusters and break us off the tunnel. Any damage we sustain we can easily repair after all.

"_One moment… you may start now_" Azan said. Naomi backed the ship up as far as the tunnel would allow, and then fired everything forwards so _Voyager_ rushed forwards and pulled the tunnel right out of the docking port. It caused some damage to the ship, and the airlock was jammed open to the dock and space. No alarms sounded as only the helm console was powered and not the computer. As everything seemed to be working, Naomi edged her old vessel towards the hole the _Hathaway_ had made when she had gone up. It was just enough space, and the remains of the tunnel snapped off to leave a little stump behind. A few seconds later, and the ship felt the stars on its hull once again.

"We've got an open airlock on deck 5. See what you can do to get it sealed off with emergency forcefields" she ordered

"_We can't do that without getting the impulse reactors online_" said Azan.

"Do what you can then. No doubt we're getting a number of calls from the fleet" Naomi said. Then just at that moment, she realised she could still communicate with the fleet and the boarding parties by using the tricorder to relay the signals. "Wildman to fleet. We managed to liberate _Voyager_ but power is down. Do not attempt to send over anybody until we have breathable air. Other ships will be pulling out soon, so I'd be grateful if you didn't fire on them please" and she got a few chuckles on the suit comm.

"_Commander Tolliver to Captain Wildman_"

"Go ahead"

"_We've taken the command centre, but we lost a few people doing it_"

"Deploy gas to those areas not under our control. Once that's done, send in people with masks on to clear the area" Naomi ordered.

"_Understood_" came the reply. Minutes passed and the other trapped ships sailed through the shattered Spacedock doors and assembled with the fleet.

"Naomi to Azan or Rebi. Have you got auxilaly power back online yet?" Naomi asked.

"_We should have it in a few minutes more. One of the fuel valves has frozen shut, and so we had to replace it. We've skipped the normal start up procedures_" Rebi replied. On docking thrusters only, Naomi painfully brought the ship round to a manageable position. A short while later, the bridge's emergency lighting powered up, and a few consoles blinked into life. "_Power engaged. Give it a minute for the life support to kick in_" Rebi said.

"Understood" Naomi said, and moved around the bridge to set the few working consoles to beginning checks on their functionality.

"_Captain Wildman?_" Tolliver was calling from the station again.

"Yes?"

"We're getting a message from Voyager Station"

"What does it say?"

"I think its broken" Tolliver said. "Am under attack. Get back soon. Can not hold on much longer" and Naomi's blood ran cold.

"Wildman to _Liberator_. Beam half the boarding parties back. Take the fleet and return to the station. Your orders are to defend the station at any cost"

"_Orders received and understood_"

"Naomi to Azan and Rebi. I need you to get warp drive back online ASAP"

"_We heard the message. We shall attempt to get the core jump started_" Azan said over the suit. "_Oh, and you may remove your helmet now_" he added. Naomi broke the seals on her helmet and breathed in the smell of _Voyager_. It smelt just as she had left it nearly 20 years before, and she thought it would have changed then. Perhaps they had replicated the smell into the air filters she thought. The lone working sensor indicated that the fleet had turned away and left for Voyager Station, and only three ships other then _Voyager_ remained. They were _Excelsior_ class ships which had a tremendous carrying capability, and Naomi assumed that they had been left to take the remaining boarding parties and the prisoners back to the station once _Voyager_ was capable of Warp travel.

"Falklands _to Wildman_" her suit radio redirected to the com badge she was wearing.

"Wildman here"

"_We're beginning to beam over a number of the prisoners now. A lot of the children appear a little underfed…_" the voice from the other ship spoke more from the sudden silence then if they had completed the sentence.

"Hostages…" the word tasted bitter in Naomi's mouth.

"_We are taking good care of them_" said the other voice.

"Supposing that we left now, would you be able to finish up here?" asked Naomi. Her fear was that Mezoti was a prime target for the forces attacking Voyager Station.

"_Just about. What are your orders regarding the station?_" asked the voice.

"Power it down to minimum support levels and then get over there as soon as possible. Wildman out" and she closed the channel.

"_Power has been restored to the warp core. You can have full warp capacity in two minutes_" Azan said.

"Very well" Naomi said, and then she suddenly thought of something. "Is the transwarp drive still installed?" she asked.

"_Yes_" replied Azan. "_Once it had been scanned as much as possible, it was replaced for the museum_" he added.

"How long would it take for you to get it operational?" Naomi thought she could cut off several days worth of travelling if they used the Transwarp Drive.

"_How would now be_?" asked Rebi, and the helm indicated that transwarp was now standing by.

"Thanks" she called. "I'm getting under weigh now" and with that, she swung _Voyager_ round and made the jump to transwarp space. A few minutes later, and the twins joined her on the bridge and took the Ops and Tactical stations. All three of them still wore their suits – just without the helmets.

"You have full power from the warp core. Other power sources should be ready when we arrive at the station" said Azan. Naomi looked back at both her friends and smiled warmly.

"Red Alert! Full power to weapons and shields" she said, and for the first time in years, _Voyager_ readied itself for battle.

"Shields are online and are at 100%" Rebi said.

"Phaser banks charged and ready. We have no torpedoes though" Azan said.

"Take the launchers offline and divert power to phasers and shields" Naomi knew the extra power could be the making or breaking of the fight.

#

"Shields are almost gone" said Di'et.

"Once they've gone down, they can either board us or just blow us up with torpedoes" Cannon said.

"I still can't believe that _we_ were deceived. Without the rest of the fleet, this station is finished" Mezoti looked down at the console which was showing the ships that had remained behind. "Have all the ships break off and mak…" she was cut off.

"I have an incoming vessel" Di'et announced. "Getting an ID code from her. NCC 74656… ITS _VOYAGER_!" she yelled with delight.

"On screen" Mezoti ordered. The giant viewer popped on to show _Voyager_ bearing down on the attackers like a predator.

"She's hailing" Cannon said. "General broadcast" and she opened the channel.

"_This is Captain Naomi Wildman of the _USS Voyager. _You are hereby ordered to cease your attacks, stand down and surrender your vessels. Failure to comply will result in your destruction. You have half a minute to reply_" Naomi's voice filtered through on the audio link.

"Another message coming in from her. Text based only. 'From _USS Voyager_ To Voyager Station. Have rejoined the fleet. Wildman, Captain, _USS Voyager_" Mezoti laughed at the message that Naomi had sent. Cannon looked at her with amusement. "I don't get it" she said.

"Oh you'd have to understand your history very well" said the Norcadian. "Stand by to redirect all firepower to defend _Voyager_" Naomi ordered.

"Aye, Commander" Di'et answered, and started redirecting all weapons to cover the starship.

#

"They have not replied" said Azan.

"Lock phasers on the lead ship and fire" and the phasers lashed out and hit the shields of the lead vessel – a _Centaur_ class vessel.

"Target shields down to 80%" Azan reported.

"Fire again" Naomi said. "Wildman to fleet. Target all ships and fire to disable. I don't want to kill anybody else today" and the fleet acknowledged the order.

"Long range sensors are indicating a large subspace disturbance heading this way" Rebi said.

"The rest of the fleet?" asked Naomi.

"Wrong direction. It appears to be several large vessels, but I am unable to get a reading at this distance" Rebi answered. "They will arrive in twenty minutes" he added.

"Damn" Naomi muttered. She spun _Voyager_ around in multiple directions as the twins locked on different ships and hit them with phaser blasts. Two _Defiant_ class vessels two station port and starboard of them and acted as an escort. The fighting went on for a very long time and a number of ships on both sides were destroyed, and many lives were lost. _Voyager_ just took what is was given, and then returned the attacks twice over.

"Vessels dropping out of warp" said Azan, and a number of _Akira_, _Legacy_ and _Norway_ class vessels came to a screaming halt. A _Sovereign_ class ship was towards the rear. "We are being hailed. On screen"

"ICHEB!" Naomi shouted with relief. "Thank heavens you are here" she said.

"_Captain Picard sends his regrets about not making the party, but he hopes you'll take these ships as a make up present_" Icheb said.

"Welcome to the party" Naomi said. "A lot of the fleet could do with general and heavy repairs. If your ships would care to take up combat patrol duties, then we can get half the trouble sorted.

"_Understood_" Naomi saw Icheb pass orders to his crew, but she saw a gleam and a certain look in his eye. "_One of the _Honour_'s company requests permission to beam aboard_" Icheb said. If it hadn't been for the smile on his face, anybody else would have thought he was referring to an engineer.

"Permission granted, Captain" Naomi said with a great deal of warmth in her voice. "Wildman to fleet. All heavily and moderately damaged vessels are to begin repairs at once. Lightly damaged vessels are requested to hold off on repairs for the time being – except for what you have in stores" and the newly expanded fleet gathered itself together and took stock of deaths, injuries and damage.

#

"CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE!" Naomi shouted. She had waited years to pay Icheb back for all those times he had called it during their adventures following Section 31 almost twenty years before. Icheb got the meaning behind the phrase and laughed as he walked out the turbolift. If it wasn't their ages, then he would have thought they were back in the Delta Quadrant and heading back to the Alpha Quadrant. Naomi sat in the Captain's chair, Mezoti had tactical, Azan had the helm and Rebi had Ops.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain?" he asked.

"Granted" Naomi ran over and hugged her friend. "Its good to see you" she said as she broke away.

"Likewise" replied the Brunali. When he had reached Picard's location, the older and more experienced Captain quickly gave Icheb a number of powerful vessels and told him to go right back at once. He had more then enough ships to mount a second attack wing, and Icheb also carried orders for Naomi. The orders were to repair and rearm her entire fleet, treat her wounded and just take it easy while Picard attempted a breakthrough to the Suryeus system. If he could take that location, then they could move there as it had a vast shipyard equipped for heavy repairs and refits. It was also close enough for everyone to evacuate and cross into Klingon space if it came to it. Naomi reasoned it wasn't a bad plan for a man pushing 102 years of age.

#

"The _Lakota_ could be out of drydock by the end of the week" said Mezoti.

"That's good" said Naomi. "How are the repairs going on the rest of the ships?" she asked.

"About a quarter of them required a complete system reboot, but we don't have enough drydocks for that" Icheb looked up from his PADD. "All _Excelsiors_ and _Ambassador_s are now capable of taking Quantum Torpedoes, but we're running very low on photons, Even spreading them around the fleet, we'd only be able to fire two salvos each" he added.

"Not every ship needs them though" Mezoti put in. "We should take them off the _Defiant_s and move them around. They have enough phaser capacity anyway…"

"What about taking some from the station?" Naomi wondered aloud.

"They are too small" Azan said.

"However, _Voyager_ is nearly finished and has a full weapons load out. Given she is the only ship with transwarp drive fitted, we thought we'd stock her completely up with torps" Rebi commented. Naomi nodded before letting out a heavy sigh.

"This is just madness" she said. "We're fighting a civil war here, and we don't even have enough to stock our larger ships. We're outmanned, outgunned and between us and Captain Picard's fleet, we have just about a quarter of the fleet. But even with all of those ships, we can only put out two dozen ships at a time" and Icheb was the first to speak.

"Apart from the drydock, we have Starbase 12 under our control. We could transfer some of our ships and personell to there. With the facilities inside it, our ships would be repaired and refitted in a faster time" he said.

"I agree" said Rebi. "Not only that, but any fleet attempting to take Voyager Station would have to pass Starbase 12 first. The ships there could act as a delay until we arrive with re-enforcments" and Naomi agreed, and she tasked him and his twin with drawing up a list of ships that would be better off at the Starbase. The rest could be done the drydock and Voyager Station.

The fleet dug in and prepared for a long and costly civil war


	7. An Enterpriseing Venture

**An Enterpriseing Venture  
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Naomi looked at the PADD on her desk which contained intercepted communications from Section 31. Starbase 12's receivers had picked it up several hours ago and a ship dispatched for attempted decoding.

"With your permission" said Icheb, "I would like a member of my crew to attempt to break the code and read the message. If he can do it, then we will be able to read their messages and find out what Section 31 is planning to do next" and Naomi nodded.

"Send him in" she agreed. Icheb pressed a button on the desk panel and allowed a man to enter.

"This is Commander Ary Boender. One of his hobbies is communications and encryption protocols. He thinks that he may be able to break their encryption codes and see what Section 31 are saying to their units" Icheb said.

"If we check each ship's communication logs, then I should be able to go over those as well" Boender said.

"How do you go about this?" Naomi asked.

"I go about looking for numbers and oddities" Boender said, and a smile crossed his face for no reason it seemed. "If a message is repeated a couple of times, then it could be that a person, unit or ship has not replied. This is useful to me because I can then look for code names for sender and receiver – helping me to find message sent or heard by them at a later time" and he went into detail over what he would do. Naomi handed him the latest message heard and asked him to start work at once.

"You are relieved of all other duties except for this" she said. "Tell nobody what you are working on, and do a copy of everything into hardcopy" and Boender nodded and left with the PADD.

#

The work was long and hard, but Boender kept working at the message well into the night.

_S31 S31 S31_

_8 5 12 12 15 000 1 18 25._

_1 19 000 1 12 23 1 25 19 000 1 000 7 15 15 4 000 5 4 9 20 9 15 14 000 15 6 000 14&15._

_8 15 16 5 000 25 15 21 000 25 15 21 000 4 15 000 14 15 20 000 13 9 14 4 000 13 5 000 14 1 13 9 14 7 000 1 000 3 8 1 18 1 3 20 5 18 000 1 6 20 5 18 000 25 15 21._

_18 5 7 1 18 4 19_

_4 1 21 14 20 12 5 19 19_

_S31 S31 S31_

This message might hold some answers as there were a lot of repeated numbers in the message, and this made Boender think they might mean a common word or something that is repeated a lot. Without one of the decoding algorithms though, he was still no closer to decoding it then he was when he started it.

The ships of the fleet were repaired and rearmed to the best ability of the small fleet. Long range communications from Starbase 12 intercepted reports of a large fleet assembling around Camus II, but they could not make out to which side the fleet belonged to. What was clear over the hours and days that followed was Captain Picard was the senior most officer of the free fleet of the Federation. Knowing that he did not have many Quantum Torpedoes, Naomi had half her stockpile loaded aboard four _Excelsior _and _Ambassador_ class ships which warped to Picard's base in strict radio silence. Their orders were to communicate via morse code using the navigation lights. As for the rest of Naomi's fleet, she had a combat fleet of roughly twenty four vessels including the _Voyager_ and she was planning on doing something that would bring this war to an end. A coded message had been sent with the convoy, requesting all information on the ships Picard had faced. Whilst relaxing with Mezoti in their quarters aboard the station, she had come upon an old World War II movie where one innocent looking ship was shown to be a vessel of an opposing side. The pair of them came up with the idea to change the markings of several of their ships and alter the transponder codes so the Section 31 loyal vessels assumed they were friendly and let them pass without a problem. The ships would then be fired upon and disabled, boarded and then taken with the crew as prisoners of war.

"What is going on in there?" asked Naomi.

"We're modifying the sensors on a number of probes" Mezoti replied. "A couple of our communication and science specialists came up with the idea embedding them in asteroids around the outer edge of the system. They could alert us to incoming vessels before the fleet detect them. Reducing the number of ships out on patrol reduces wear and tear on equipment. We'd still have some ships on a constant yellow alert, but they would rotate on a four hour shift" and Naomi nodded.

"We might also be able to do some maintenance of ship's nacelles" she agreed. "They have to be completely powered down before work can start" the woman added.

"We'll deploy them using shuttles to land on each asteroid. Actually works out quicker then a starship" Mezoti showed her wife to the next lab. A number of engineering and science people were going over lumps of charred equipment and debris that had come from various starships. "We're analysing parts of the debris in order to find out if Section 31 have been arming their vessels with more powerful weapons. If they are, then we might be able to come up with new shield harmonics to offset this" and the intercom went off and Cannon's voice filtered through the air.

"_Ops to Captain Wildman_"

"Naomi here" Naomi tapped her com badge.

"_We're receiving a message from our convoy_" Cannon said. "_They encountered a number of ships whilst on route and they were unable to get past them. The enemy vessels stopped pursuing after a few minutes. They are on their way back here. They also picked up a coded message for you_"

"I am on my way, Naomi out" Naomi left the lab with Mezoti following close behind. They used codes to override the normal flow of traffic and went right to Operations.

#

"Send the message to my console" Naomi ordered as she stepped off the lift.

"Understood" Cannon said. Naomi and Mezoti went into the former commandant's office and ordered the doors locked.

"Computer, begin playback of message" Naomi ordered.

_This is a Code 47-A priority message. After playback, there shall be no record of this message. It should not be discussed with fellow officers unless deemed absolutely necessary_. The computer went through the standard security protocol.

"Acknowledge"

_Voice print analysis_

"Wildman, Naomi. Captain, _USS Voyager_"

_Voice print confirmed_

"_Captain Wildman_" Picard's face appeared on the console screen. The message had been recorded in his ready room aboard the _Enterprise_, and he looked very tired and worn out to both Naomi and Mezoti. "_It has been too long since we last saw each other. This message was designed to be sent out in the eventuality that the _Enterprise_ was either captured of destroyed. So far we have not, but the ship has taken a lot of damage, and we are hiding in a nebula in an attempt to repair as much damage as we can. The ship and several others were leading a raid on a weapons production facility when we got ambushed. We are likely to not survive another assault, so I am placing you in command of whatever ships are still free. If fates are willing, then we can make our escape and join back up with you. That is very slim, so I wish you good luck Captain. Picard out_" Picard saluted the screen before it went blank.

"There must be some awful damage to make Picard be like this" Mezoti said.

"And at least two days away at maximum warp" Naomi said, turning to look out the windows at the fleet around the station. "Computer, how many persons are aboard the _Voyager_?" she asked.

_Twenty five_

"Wildman to Cannon, contact the _Honour_ and have Captain Icheb patched to myself and Mezoti" Naomi said, and then stepped out of the office after removing the lock.

"Understood" Cannon said as she was passed by her commanding officer and friend. The pair of them stepped into the turbolift, and Icheb replied from the bridge of his ship.

"_Is something wrong_?" he asked.

"Upper Pylon 2" Naomi said to the turbolift. "Icheb, the _Enterprise_ is badly damaged, and Captain Picard does not believe he will survive another attack by Section 31"

"_His base is at least two days away at maximum warp_" Icheb said.

"We can get there in time if we use _Voyager_" Mezoti said. "Her transwarp drive is fully operational. It would only be three hours at full speed for us to reach that area" she added.

"I need people that know _Voyager_ like the back of their hands" Naomi said. "Would you care to come along for the ride?" and Icheb said he would have himself beamed aboard.

#

"Report!" Naomi called as she stood on _Voyager_'s bridge a few minutes later.

"Tactical and communications ready" Azan said, standing at the Tactical station.

"Operations ready" said Rebi, seating himself at Operations.

"Navigation and helm ready" Icheb had claimed the helm for himself. "All speeds through transwarp available at your command" he added.

"Science ready" Mezoti said as she walked over to the console Naomi's mother had once manned.

"Very well" Naomi said, settling into the Captain's chair. "Seal the airlock. Release docking clamps. Aft thrusters at one quarter. Port and starboard at station keeping" the ship hummed into life as it slowly moved away from the pylon it had been moored to moments before.

"We've cleared the station" Rebi said.

"Icheb, lay in a course for the _Enterprise_'s last known location" Naomi ordered, "And engage at warp 6" and second later the ship jumped to fantastic speeds.

"Holding steady on 212 mark 45" Icheb said. He was smiling because he was back on the ship he knew so well.

"Engage transwarp drive and slowly bring us up towards maximum power" Naomi said. Apart from a small tremble as they went past Warp 10, there was not a single effect on the ship as they went as fast as Borg ships went.

"30% and climbing"

"Steady as she goes, Icheb"

"Aye" he easily fell back into his role as _Voyager_'s helm officer from back when it was just the five of them and the Doctor.

"Estimate arrival at one hour and forty minutes" Mezoti said.

"Very well" Naomi said. She watched the bending of light as they went hurtling faster then most other people had ever been before. "Shields up! Yellow Alert!"

"Yellow Alert" echoed Mezoti. "All hands, Yellow Alert. All hands, Yellow Alert" she called over the intercom.

"You know" Rebi said from Operations, "This is just like old times" and there was a small amount of laughter.

"Except everything is a little smaller now" Mezoti said.

"Or we've all grown taller" Naomi commented dryly. "Bridge to Engineering"

"_Engineering. Chief Engineer McAndrews reporting_"

"How are we doing, Chief?"

"_I've only studied the transwarp drive, but it seems to be running just fine, Captain. All systems and power supplies optimal. We are fully operational_"

"Reduce power to decks we are not using. I have a feeling that we'll be needing all the power we can get" Naomi said.

"_Aye, Captain. Is there anything else_?"

"Rig the main deflector to emit a series of Anti Proton bursts. We might be able to knock out the shields and some systems of the enemy vessels"

"_I am not aware of that tactic_"

"It is something like a trick that I used before, Chief" Naomi said.

"_Aye, Captain. Engineering out_"

"Check all consoles" Naomi said. "I don't want to find out that we've a wounded bird" and they checked the bridge stations.

"I think she's singing" Azan said, referring to _Voyager_.

"She just wants to get out and fly, Azan" Naomi said. "She's not meant to be tied up all the time" and the ship ploughed on through the lair of the Borg – thankfully not meeting any cubes along the way.

#

"Shields are down to 46%" called Data. "We can not withstand another hit in our ventral shields" he added.

"Status of warp drive" Picard said, gripping the arms of his chair as they were hit by phaser fire.

"Still offline" Data said. "Life support has failed. Five minutes of breathable air remaining" he reported.

"Enemy vessels incoming on course 345 mark 6" Worf said.

"That makes fourteen ships" Picard said.

"The last transport has escaped" Data said.

"That is something at least…" Picard muttered.

"Captain, I am reading a massive subspace disturbance on the edge of sensor range" Worf said.

"Not more ships" Picard said.

"Just one vessel" Worf replied

"Data, we can't win. Lock on the nearest vessel and prepare to ram it" Picard said.

"I am getting a clearer reading on the incoming vessel" Worf announced, waving smoke from over his console. "Federation Starfleet… _Intrepid_ class… unable to get an identification" he added.

"Doesn't matter" Picard said. "Data, divert all power to the impulse drive"

#

"We are approaching the coordinates" Icheb said.

"Very well" Naomi said. "Red Alert! Full power to shields. Charge all phaser banks. Load torpedo bays" and the ship brought itself to full readiness for a fight.

"Phasers are charged and online" Azan said. "Borg weapon systems on standby. Torpedo launchers loaded and ready to fire" he added.

"Icheb, drop out of transwarp" Naomi ordered.

"Aye" he replied. He didn't have to be so formal as they held the same rank, but she did have more time as Captain then he did. Icheb did so because he wanted to and because it was meant to be. The ship slowed out of transwarp speed and reduced speed to Warp 1.

"Sensors detecting fifteen vessels" Mezoti said. "Most of them are firing on the remaining ship – it's the _Enterptise_" she reported.

"Hail the vessels and order them to stand down" said Naomi. She was prepared to fight, but was going to give them a warning – even if she knew she was going to be ignored.

"They are not responding" Rebi said.

"Lock on to the nearest ship and prepare to fire" Naomi ordered.

"Aye, Captain" Azan said.

"What ships do we have here?" Naomi asked.

"A number of _Defiant_s and _Akira_ class vessels" Mezoti said. "There is also a _Legacy_ class here as well" she added.

"Coming into phaser range now" Azan said.

"Fire" Naomi ordered, and the phaser lashed out and hit the shields of a _Defiant_ class vessel.

"Target shields down to 89%" Azan said.

"Keep us on that ship's tail, Icheb. Bridge to Engineering. Is the deflector ready?"

"_Affirmative_"

"Transfer control up to the bridge. Rebi, standby to fire a pulse at the ship" Naomi said. _Voyager_ rumbled as it took hits from the attacking vessels, and things were going to plan. They would try to capture or destroy _Voyager_ which would give the _Enterprise_ time to get warp drive back online and make an escape.

"Deflector pulse standing ready" Rebi said.

"Shoot" and the deflector pulsed and struck the _Defiant_ class ship in the middle of the aft section. The shields flared blue before dropping and the ship slowed and tumbled off course.

"The ship has been disabled" Rebi said as _Voyager_ was struck by a number of torpedoes from all sides.

"Shields down to 79%" Azan said.

"Fire at will" Naomi said. "Do we have communications with the _Enterprise_?" she asked.

"Their comm system is offline" Mezoti said. "They have suffered damage and hull breaches on all decks, weapons are down and I am reading multiple casualties" and she turned to look at Naomi. "They can't last much longer" and there was a grim understanding.

"Azan, fire at all targets that come in front of us. Rebi, fire our deflector if you're able to. I would rather we disable the vessels then destroy them, but our main aim is save the _Enterprise_" Naomi said. The battle went on and _Voyager_ gave as much as good as she got, and the crew disabled many of the attacking vessels.

"The remaining ships are warping out of the system" Mezoti said.

"Shall I go after them?" Icheb asked.

"No…" Naomi said with a shake of her head. "We have too much to deal with here. Status of the _Enterprise_"

"They have powered down to minimum levels" Mezoti said. "Some decks have been decompressed due to atmospheric loss. The disabled ships are mainly intact, and I am picking up a number of beacons from EVA suits and escape pods" she looked over at her wife. "What are your orders?" and Naomi took her time in thinking.

"Rebi, do the disabled vessels have comms?"

"I am picking up some weak intra ship" he replied.

"Can you patch me in?"

"Easy" Rebi worked his controls. "You're patched in to the ships, escape pods and those in suits" he gestured.

"Attention all. This is Captain Naomi Wildman of the starship _Voyager_. You have been disabled and are out of control. You require assistance which we are willing to provide" Naomi said. "We will beam those in suits aboard and to our brig shortly. If any vessel restores power and attempts to continue the battle, then we shall destroy you. _Voyager_ out"

"One of the disabled vessels is drifting close to the gravity well of the planet" pointed out Icheb.

"Bring us closer to it and slap on a tractor beam" Naomi ordered. "Stand down Red Alert. Bridge to Engineering. Damage report"

"_Minor buckling in the hull, Captain_" McAndrews said. "_One of the shield emitters overheated, but we're otherwise fully operational_" he added.

"I want you to increase the strength in the forcefields around the cargo bays and shuttle bays. We're beaming on survivors" Naomi said.

"_Aye, Captain. We'll get started on that at once, Engineering out_"

"Beam the pods to the shuttle bays. People in suits go to the cargo bays" Naomi said.

"The fall has been arrested" Rebi said.

"_Enterprise_ communications have been restored" Mezoti said. "I am routing the signal through the main sensor array"

"Voyager, _this is the _Enterprise" a male called out. It sounded a little rough from taking in smoke. "_We are in urgent need of help. Our Sickbay is swamped with casualties_" and Naomi grimaced.

"We do not have a medical team aboard, but you are welcome to beam some of your wounded aboard" she said.

"_Understood_" the voice said. "_Some of our transporters are damaged and offline. Could you assist?_" and Naomi looked at Rebi who nodded silently.

"That's affirmative, _Enterprise_" Naomi said. "We might be able to get the medical personnel from the disabled ships to help. I would assume that they were under duress… for the most part. Can you patch me through to Captain Picard?" she asked.

"_Captain Picard is close to death. He is undergoing surgery as we speak, but he needs better attention then either of us can supply. He needs to get to a station's medical facilities_"

"Can he be stabilised?" asked Naomi.

"_That is remaining to be seen_" the voice said. "_He needs to get to Voyager Station in the next few hours, but it would take us several days at top speed. Our warp drive is inoperable, and we're working on hull integrity first and foremost_"

"We shall beam some of your wounded to our ship" said Naomi. "I am coming aboard" and she cued the channel off from the centre seat.

"What are you thinking of doing?" asked Icheb.

"_Voyager_ can easily do the trip from here to the station within hours. We load the most serious wounded and the ship goes back to the station and offloads. It then comes back with a compliment of medical and engineering staff" Naomi said.

"Would you like me to come with you?" Mezoti asked.

"You better had" said Naomi after a moment. "Icheb, I want you to start taking the most serious cases aboard. Your orders are to go at maximum transwarp speed back to the station" and Icheb blinked several times.

"You want me to take your ship?" he asked.

"Icheb, I trust you with this" Naomi assured him, then thought of something to put him at ease. "You _do_ have your driving licence right?" she asked. Icheb laughed and assured her that he did, and that he would take good care of _Voyager_.

"She will be in good hands" he said.

"It better Mister" Naomi growled. "You have the bridge" Naomi and Mezoti went down to the Sickbay and grabbed as many emergency med kits as they could carry before beaming over to the _Enterprise_.

#

"Don't I know you?" asked a red haired woman.

"Naomi Wildman. We met after I brought _Voyager_ home" Naomi said.

"Of course" said Beverley Crusher. "Thank you for saving us. I am taking a few minutes from operating on Captain Picard. Thank you for the medical supplies you brought over from your ship, Captain. They are being a great help to us in treating the worst of the cases. I hope to stabilise Jean-Luc enough to transfer him to _Voyager_ soon" she said.

"We are carrying no medical officers aboard _Voyager_, so you had better go with them so the treatment is the same at all times" Naomi said. "Our Sickbay is fully stocked up anyway…" and Crusher agreed.

#

"Greetings, I am Commander Data" the android said.

"I am Captain Naomi Wildman" Naomi said. "This is Commander Mezoti Wildman" and the android nodded slightly.

"Welcome aboard" he said to the pair.

"I hereby assume command of this vessel by virtue of my rank" Naomi said. "Please so note in the log"

"Aye, Captain" and Data typed it into the log.

"What is the status of the ship?" asked Mezoti.

"Engineering reports that we will have main power restored in approximately eighteen hours" Data said.

"What about warp drive?" asked Naomi.

"We are unable to begin repairs due to a coolant leak in main engineering. Once it has been vented, we will be able to inspect the warp core for damage and start bringing the drive back online" the android said.

"Do you have enough life support?"

"For the moment, but we may lose life support again at any moment. I would recommend transferring some of the crew to _Voyager_" Data said.

"She is running on a skeleton crew" said Naomi, "But this trip is taking the worst of the cases to Voyager Station as well as a number of prisoners" but Mezoti hit on an idea.

"The disabled ships are in need of repair" she said. "We could transfer some of the crew over to begin repairs. That will reduce the demand on the life support systems" and they went into action and transferred some people over to each of the surviving ships.

#

"Open a channel to the _Enterprise_" said Icheb.

"Channel open" Rebi said.

"We're ready to get under weigh" Icheb said.

"_You understand your orders?_" Naomi said from the bridge of the other ship.

"Indeed" Icheb assured her. "I will be back as soon as possible" he said.

"_Be careful with her, Icheb. She's a good ship, but I know she is in good hands_" Naomi said.

"Thank you" Icheb said. "Good luck"

"_And the same to you, Captain,_ Enterprise_ out_" and Naomi closed the channel.

"Azan, plot a course for Voyager Station – Warp 6" Icheb sat in the first officer's seat. Although he was in command of the ship, he felt it was not his place to sit in.

"Course plotted and laid in" the man said.

"Engage" and the powerful starship leapt into warp.

"We are standing by to engage Transwarp drive" Rebi said.

"Engage the drive" Icheb ordered, and _Voyager_ went faster on its mission of mercy.

#

"There they go…" Mezoti said softly.

"Clear sailing" Naomi whispered to the departing starship.

"Captain Wildman" Data was getting her attention. "Engineering reports it is now inspecting the warp core for damage, and that they are beginning power up sequences as we speak" and Naomi nodded.

"Status of the other ships?" she asked.

"They have power to their Warp Drives" Data said. "Commander Wildman was most… inventive when it came to getting their crews to work" and the android _almost_ smiled. "Some of them will be able to depart in one hour" he added.

"Task Force Cupcake will be running with weapons and shields disabled" Mezoti said. "Only Icheb has the code to return them to operation, and he is passing them on to the station when he gets there" and Naomi was smiling.

"Task Force Cupcake?"

"It was the first thing that came to mind" Mezoti said.

"Mmm… I worry about you, Mez" Naomi shook her head. "Let's get to work here. I want a mixture of security and any engineering personnel we can spare to beam over to each of the disabled ships. After we have effected repairs, most of the crew will be restricted to quarters except for engineering crews and the helm officer" and they went to work.

#

It took almost a full day for the repairs to be made so the ship was fit for warp travel, and the _Enterprise_ made the trip to Voyager Station at a steady Warp 5. They reached the fleet at the end of the week, and the ship was placed into the drydock for a complete refit and overhaul. Captain Picard was treated on the station and was on course to make a full recovery. The ships under the control of Section 31 seemed reluctant to make any kind of assault on the fleet, though they would come within sensor range of Starbase 12 and then turn round and go away again. Using the many telepaths among the crews, Naomi had each one speak to those taken prisoner to determine of they worked for Section 31 freely, or were under some kind of duress. Those that were freely working for them got placed aboard ships and taken to Starbase 12 for holding as prisoners of war.

"_Cannon to Captain Wildman_"

"Naomi here" Naomi tapped her communicator whilst reading a book in her quarters.

"_I… erm… You better get up here_" Cannon said.

"Something wrong?" Naomi put down the book and glanced at Mezoti.

"_We're getting a signal on all subspace channels_" Cannon said. "_You need o see this for yourself_"

"I'm on my way" Naomi said, and she and Mezoti rushed for the door.

#

"Report!"

"Captain, we picked a transmission from Starfleet Command" Cannon said.

"Put it on screen" Naomi said. An old woman wearing an Admiral's uniform appeared on the screen, and everybody knew very well who she was.

"_A few hours ago, ships loyal to the renegade Captain Naomi Wildman attacked and destroyed innocent passenger liners on course for Risa. After passengers and crew took to the escape pods, the ships shot them down on her orders. No survivors were found by rescue ships that came to aid the liners_" Nechayev said. "_A few minutes ago, I personally ordered the complete destruction of the colony on Proxima III, and that everybody was to be wiped out. I did not take this lightly, and it was with the deepest regret that I gave the order. I am ordering that Naomi Wildman surrender herself and her fleet to Starfleet or else I will bomb more colonies and bases until she does so. I order all ships to destroy the renegade vessels, and I also extend an olive branch to those who misguidely followed Captain Wildman. If you surrender to one of our ships, you will not be tried for treason or otherwise punished. Captain Wildman, you have twelve hours to surrender yourself and your ships before we launch the assault_" and Nechayev's image left the screen.

"Get confirmation" said Naomi. She was chilled to the bone at what Nechayev had done, and she would never have thought that Section 31 would have gone so far.

"Aye, Captain" Di'et spoke from the rear of Ops. There was silence from everybody as she worked the console. "Confirmed, Captain. Complete destruction. All lives lost"

"Your orders?" asked Cannon.

"Assuming that she is going to bomb the nearest place, what is the next target they will bomb?" Mezoti asked.

"I would say Orion VII" Cannon said. "It is a pleasure planet, and has no ground and space based weapons to defend it" she said.

"How long would it take to get there at Warp 9?" Naomi asked.

"Fourteen hours at that speed" came the reply. "They might just blockade that route and shoot down any vessel that attempts to leave the system" Cannon added.

"Well we'll just have to find out" said Naomi. "I want all _Akira_ class vessels ready to go in less then half an hour" she told her. "Contact Icheb and have him stand by to come with us. You two are more then welcome to join us. I'm taking _Voyager_ and the others to Orion VII and stopping them doing as much damage as possible" and she and Mezoti boarded the turbolift. "Upper Pylon 2" and it set off.

#

"All crew accounted for" said Azan.

"All ships are ready to go" Rebi said.

"Very well" Naomi sat in the centre seat. "Signal the fleet to set course for Orion VII – Warp 9.2" she made a shooting motion with her finger, "Engage" and the fleet set off on its essential mission to protect the people on the planet. They would arrive two hours after the attack would begin, but there was something that they could do about it.

"_Naomi_?" Icheb appeared on the bridge of the _Honour_.

"We're going to go ahead using the transwarp drive and give the planet some time to prepare for the worst. We'll send out shuttles as piquets, and try to hold out as best we can" Naomi said.

"_Understood_" Icheb replied. "_I will try to catch up with you as quickly as possible_" he added. "_Good Luck, Naomi_" and he blinked off the screen.

"All hands, Red Alert!" Mezoti said. The lights dimmed as the ship went into battle mode.

"Stand by Transwarp drive" Naomi said. "Increase speed to Warp 9.3" and _Voyager_ pulled away from the fleet.

"We are clear of the other ships" Di'et said.

"Bridge to Engineering"

"_Engineering_"

"We'll be arriving in four hours" Naomi said. "I want you to get started on fixing torpedo launchers to the shuttles" she ordered.

"_We'll see what we can do, Captain_"

"Do your best, bridge out" Naomi looked at Azan and Rebi who nodded in reply to the unasked question. "Standby to engage Transwarp drive" Naomi ordered.

"All decks report ready" Azan said.

"Transwarp drive is online and awaiting your command" put in Rebi.

"Rankush, engage the drive" and Di'et complied. With a green flash, the ship went faster then the other vessels in the fleet.

"Holding steady at 30% of total power" she said.

"Bring us up to 75% of total power, and hold steady on that" Naomi said.

"75%, Aye"

"Lets just hope the ships are not already there" Mezoti muttered.

"I hope not…" Naomi said.


	8. Oright on Orion

**Oright on Orion  
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"Approaching destination" Di'et called.

"Yellow Alert" Naomi ordered. "General quarters" and the crew went to a heightened state of alert, but not yet ready to fully work up for a possible battle.

"All decks report General Quarters" Cannon said. "Shields are at half power" she added.

"Disengage Transwarp drive" Naomi watched the screen as _Voyager _slowed to impulse. All at once, consoles of Cannon, Di'et and Mezoti all bleeped into life as sensors found something.

"This is interesting" Mezoti muttered.

"Report" Naomi asked.

"Captain, I am detecting several Starfleet and a single Romulan Warbird around Orion VII" Cannon said.

"I have them" Di'et said. "Bearing 323 mark 114"

"They are engaged in combat" Cannon said.

"Red Alert!" Naomi snapped. "Load torpedo bays. Ready Phasers"

"Naomi?" Mezoti called over from Science.

"Yes?"

"The Warbird is heavily damaged and won't last long" she said.

"Incoming hail" Azan said. "On screen" and the image of a Romulan appeared on the screen.

"_So… you come to face me and join with your friends? You will never win_" and the image blinked off.

"Do we know anybody?" asked Naomi.

"The Starfleet vessels are the _Venture_ and the _Devore_" Rebi said. "Registry index reports that the Warbird is the _Chairo_, under the command of Commander Terrik" he added.

"She won't last another sustained assault" Cannon said.

"Rankush, put us between the Warbird and the ships. Denise, target the nearest ship and stand by to fire" Naomi said. _Voyager_ moved between the two parties and opened fire on the Starfleet vessels. Cannon was able to batter down the shields of the _Devore_ and disable their phaser arrays and fuse their torpedo tubes shut. After the _Venture_ sustained moderate damage to phasers, impulse and shields the pair turned away and warped out of the system.

"Incoming hail from the _Chairo_" Azan said.

"On screen" Naomi requested, and the Romulan appeared on the screen once more. He was battle stained but looked imposing all the same.

"_Captain, I… I…_" he seemed lost for words. "_Ever since I was a child, I have been taught that no human can be trusted. It seems that I was taught… incorrectly. I have been investigating the loss of one of the ships under my command, and I assumed you and the others were involved. I have misjudged you, Captain. May I have the honour of knowing your name_?"

"Naomi Wildman. Captain of the starship _Voyager_" Naomi said.

"The_ Naomi Wildman. The girl who brought back a crippled vessel and yet still managed to defeat more powerful vessels_?" Terrik was shocked, and looked down at a readout to confirm it.

"The one and only" Naomi grinned. "May I ask why you are in Federation space?"

"_There was no ship at the border, and I found this very odd indeed. I decided to keep going and ran without my cloak on_" Terrik replied. "_Before I could hail the planet below, I was set upon by those two ships and nearly destroyed_"

"What is your damage status?" asked Naomi.

"_Our hull is compromised in several areas, and some bulkheads have failed. I have no impulse, and Warp Drive is disabled_" Terrik said.

"Would you care for some extra help?" asked Naomi.

"_I would appreciate that, Captain_" Terrik said. "_Would you care to board the _Chairo _have a drink with me. It is a small and poor way to show my gratitude_" he added.

"I would be delighted. Would you mind if I brought my Science officer along?" and Terrik nodded.

"_My transporter stands ready, _Chairo _out_" and the image vanished from the screen.

"Stand down to normal operations" Naomi said. "Azan, Rebi. Speak to the Chief about what we can do for the _Chairo_ and have the parts beamed aboard with some engineering crews to go with them" she said.

"Do I have time to get my best dress on?" asked Mezoti with a twinkle in her eye.

"Maybe I'll help you out of it" growled Naomi.

"Perhaps the Captain would care to explore some large peaks that are close by" Mezoti said in a low voice.

"Might have time" Naomi replied in the same voice. "I did notice a soft valley south of the peaks, and I thought that was much more exciting" most of the bridge crew could not believe that the Captain and Science Officer were openly flirting on the bridge in front of everybody.

"That's near a deep chasm" Mezoti said.

"You know of it?" Naomi asked.

"I'm somewhat… intimate with the location" Mezoti replied, and she pinched Naomi's backside and they walked into the turbolift.

"What do you think?" Cannon asked Azan.

"Sorry" he replied straight faced, "You're not my type, Commander" and Cannon's jaw dropped in shock and amazement.

#

"Permission to come aboard, Captain" Naomi said.

"Permission granted, Captain. Welcome aboard the _Chairo_, Captain Wildman" Terrik said.

"May I present my wife and Science Officer, Mezoti Wildman" Naomi said.

"You are married?" Terrik raised an eyebrow.

"For just about twenty years" Mezoti said.

"And we've never had an argument in all that time" Naomi said.

"Truly?" Terrik sounded sceptical.

"Truly" Mezoti confirmed.

"Would you like to have a brief tour of the ship?" Terrik asked.

"Thank you, Commander" Naomi said, and Terrik led them out of the transporter room and took them on a brief tour of the ship – finishing up at the bridge.

# # # # #

"How are our teams doing?" asked Cannon.

"Emergency repairs should be complete in four hours" Rebi said.

"Detecting vessels coming out of warp" Azan said. "Receiving registry numbers now… it's the rest of the fleet" he added.

"Open a channel to the _Honour_" Cannon ordered.

"_We're here, Nao… Where is Naomi?_" asked Icheb.

"In quarters" Cannon said. "They were invited to drinks aboard the Warbird. They should be sleeping off the third bottle of Romulan Ale" she added.

"_Commander, I suggest that you set your inertial dampeners and SIF to maximum_" Icheb smiled.

"Why, Sir?"

"_Today just happens to be their wedding anniversary_" Icheb said. "_And I share a slight link to Mezoti. That's why the twins have knowing looks on their faces_" he continued. Cannon looked round to see both Azan and Rebi with slight grins.

"The Captain's orders are to use the shuttles for close defence of the planet. The idea is to shoot down the torpedoes before they hit the ground" Cannon said.

"_Very well_" Icheb nodded. "_We shall continue on that course of action. Please inform me when Naomi and Mezoti are… free to talk. _Honour_ out_"

# # # # #

"Picking up ships on the outer edge of the system" Di'et said. "Estimate forty five minutes until contact"

"Very well" Naomi said. "Azan, send the following to _Chairo_. Section 31 vessels closing in. Suggest that you withdraw in system and cloak, Wildman"

"Message sent" Azan said. "_Chairo_ acknowledges" and the Warbird turned and cloaked it headed deeper into the system.

"Vessels have just made a small warp jump" Mezoti said suddenly. "Estimate firing range in three minutes"

"Captain to all hands. General quarters! Red Alert! All hands to battle stations. All hands, man your battle stations" Naomi called all over the ship.

"Shields are up. Torpedo tubes loaded, phasers charged and disrupters energised – ready to fire" Cannon said.

"Commander Di'et, bring the ship about and intercept the enemy" Naomi ordered. "Hail the lead vessel"

"Channel open" Rebi said. "Although this is odd" he added.

"What is?" Naomi asked as the two sides grew ever closer.

"One of the vessels is the _Devore_, and she has not repaired much of her damage" he said.

"Confirmed" Mezoti said. "Damage on the vessel conforms to what we did to her"

"What about the other vessels?" asked Naomi.

"Sensors indicate the _San Francisco_, _Berkeley_ and the _Excalibur_ with the _Devore_"

"They are responding" Azan said.

"Very well then. Cannon, lock phas – what?" Naomi took a moment to realise what was being said.

"The lead vessel is replying to your hail" Azan said.

"Send to fleet: All ships hold position and lock on targets, but DO NOT fire unless fired upon" Naomi said. "Put them on screen" and the viewscreen changed from the small group of ships to the face of a Starfleet Captain.

"_Captain Wildman, I am Captain Morrison of the _Excalibur_. You are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded by order of Starfleet Command_" the dark skinned human male said.

"Sorry, captain" Naomi said. "But we are unable to comply. You know that these orders are wrong. Admiral Nechayev is only doing this so she can get revenge for her imprisonment all those years ago. She ordered the wiping out of thousands of civilian lives on Proxima III, and Orion VII is her next target of choice. She wants Starfleet to use force on anybody that does not wish to carry out her will"

"_I am giving you one last chance, captain_" Morrison said. "_Surrender your vessels and prepare to be boarded_"

"You know that we can not do that and allow you to kill everyone on Orion VII" Naomi said.

"_Then you will have to die_" the other man said.

"A grand day for it" Naomi replied, and cut him off. "_Voyager_ to all ships, prepare to engage" and seconds later the battle began.

#

"Report on the battle" Terrik said.

"Both sides have sustained heavy damage. Four ships destroyed. Three crippled serverly" said his Tactical Officer.

"_Voyager_?"

"They have taken moderate damage to their forward phaser arrays" the officer replied. "Shields are at 47%. Hull integrity is at 79%" she added.

"What is the status of our impulse drive?" Terrik asked.

"Repairs have been completed" said the engineering officer.

"What about our weapons and shields?"

"Fully functional, Commander"

"Very well then" Terrik watched the screen as the battling starships continued their dance of death. "All stations – Battle Alert! Helm, prepare to bring us to a point behind the Section 31 vessels. I want a course that will take us well away from the vessels. Once we have got to one side, you will fire a short burst from the impulse engines. We will coast in on thrusters only – under cloak of course" he looked around the bridge at his crew. "We will not be getting involved in this fight, but we will be merely there to record the outcome for the benefit of the empire"

# # # # #

"Report!" Naomi yelled over the fresh set of alarms.

"We were hit by a number of Quantum Torpedoes" Cannon said. "Shields are down to 24%"

"Bridge to engineering. Can you divert power from the battery system to shields?" Naomi called.

"_Captain, the Chief is dead_" a trembling voice said. "_He was killed from a piece of console_"

"Can you divert power, Engineer?" asked Naomi.

"_Perhaps… maybe… I'll give it a go, Captain_" the young woman said.

"Rankush, get us back behind the seconda - " Naomi was cut off as the ship shook all the way done to her spine. New alarms sounded as consoles overloaded and blew out – sending some of the bridge crew hurtling to the other side of the deck.

#

"Helm, lay in this course and engage at best possible speed" Terrik ordered.

"But sir" the Helm officer protested, "That will take us into…"

"I know" his Commander replied. "Carry out my orders"

#

Similar scenes to the bridge were going on all over the ship, and parts of the hull opened up and crew members blasted out into space. "DAMAGE REPORT!" Naomi yelled.

"Main power's offline, we've lost shields, and our weapons are gone" Azan shouted over everything.

"Hull breach on decks 2 through 12" Rebi said. "Most systems are offline or destroyed" he added mournfully.

"Rankush, get us the hell away from here" Naomi yelled, trying to crawl back to her seat. A lightening bolt of pain shot up her left side as she tried to stand. "Rankush?" but there was no reply.

"Commander Di'et is in urgent need of medical attention" Rebi said, jumping over the railing and going over to Helm. Di'et was in pretty bad shape. He pulled her away from the console, brushed the debris from the controls and sat down himself.

"Do we have communications?" Naomi asked.

"No" Azan said.

"Status of the fleet" Naomi asked, hauling herself upwards.

"Half of our side has gone. _Honour_ and _Illustrious_ are attempting to give us cover, but they are being outflanked by enemy shuttles" Mezoti said, cradling her useless right arm in her lap.

"Can either one of you three get a message to Icheb? Tell him to take what left and get the hell away from here?" Naomi asked.

"We'll try" said all three former drones.

"Rebi, see if you can get us behind the defective line of shuttles" Naomi ordered through gritted teeth.

"Icheb says he will not go" Azan said suddenly.

"Tell him to go" Naomi said. "Before it is too late" and Mezoti's station clamoured for attention once more.

"TELL HIM TO GO NOW!" Naomi screamed.

"There's another starship coming in" Mezoti announced. "It's the _Chairo_" and the Warbird swooped in with disrupters blazing. It flew past the bows of the battered _Voyager_ and destroyed all of the enemy shuttles in a single pass, and launched a few torpedoes at the _Excalibur_.

"Hey!" exclaimed Azan. "We have partial main power" he said.

"Put it all into shields" Naomi said. She had no idea where this power was coming from at all, but she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Phasers coming online" Cannon said. She was trying to work her console and stop the blood from pouring out of her side. "Your orders?"

"Well find something that is shooting at us, and hit them back" Naomi yelled. Phasers lashed out at the _Devore_ and rippled over her shields. "Again" and the deadly beams went through the shields and struck the starboard impulse engine as the other vessel turned to port.

"She's locked into a port turn" Cannon said.

"That hit disrupted control over her impulse drive" Mezoti said. "They are taking them offline"

"Target her nacelles" Naomi ordered. "Cripple her if possible" but as she spoke, the other vessel ripped into two from an internal explosion.

"Her impulse reactor exploded" Mezoti said. "No warning at all"

"Get to the lifepods… get to the life po…" Cannon willed, but both halves blew up and flung chunks of dead starship around the battlefield.

"The _San Francisco_ and the _Excalibur_ have warped out" Cannon said. "_Berkley_ is offering to surrender" she added.

"Signal _Berkley_ by visual means that I accept her surrender" Naomi said. The pain was becoming bearable by now. "Stand down from Red Alert. Get me a complete damage assessment and casualty report" she tapped the comm panel. "Bridge to Sickbay. Medical team to the bridge" but there was no reply.

"Internal communications are offline" Azan said. "I will try to contact Icheb and see if he can assist us" and a short while later, a group of medical personnel arrived via a transporter beam.

# # # # #

"It all looks worse then it really is, Captain" said the Assistant Engineer. "I was able to divert power from the transwarp drive and feed it into the grid. We won't have Transwarp for the journey back to the station, but we have maximum warp at your command" he added. Within twenty four hours of the battle, enough repairs had been made to the ship to enable _Voyager_ to get to the station. She had lost twelve people from explosions aboard ship, sixteen from decompression and forty seven were unaccounted for. The survivors were in various states, and a number of them had already departed on a couple of the _Akira_ class ships for Starbase 12 – closer to Orion VII then Voyager Station.

"Captain Haley has elected to remain here and defend the planet with the _Dumbarton_, _Sofia_ and the _Caroline_" Icheb said. "More ships are on their way as we speak" he added.

"Let us hope we don't run into any muggers in the park" Naomi muttered.

"The ships that faced us were greatly upgraded from standard design" Azan said. "Rebi and I went through all of the sensor logs we could get, and we found that they have an increased strength in their forward shields. They also seem to have a lot more phaser power" and his twin nodded.

"I will go over this data and see what we can do to protect ourselves" Rebi said.

"Do what you can" Naomi said. "I want to get under weigh in half an hour. Dismiss" and the meeting broke up. Naomi walked over her shattered bridge and went into her ready room. "Coffee with cinnamon?" she looked at the desk.

"Of course, babes…" Mezoti said. "You know it calms you after getting worked up over something" she stood behind the chair and started to massage her wife's shoulders as Naomi sipped the coffee.

"I'm getting tired of this, Mez…" she sighed. "I have lost half of my crew outright, and I know for a fact that I am going to lose more over the next few days. I have got half a mind to retire and turn everything over to Icheb" and Naomi really meant it. She had had enough of going into danger and not bringing everybody back alive. She regretted each and every life lost on both sides of the conflict, and Naomi wanted to just let somebody else have a go.

"This whole resistance would fail" Mezoti said, putting her arms around her wife and leaning over the chair and Naomi's shoulder. "There are few Captains that are respected by everyone in Starfleet. Picard, Maxwell, Sisko, Riker and you… Riker is on a deep space mission, Picard is in hospital, Maxwell is on Jarrow II and Sisko is… someplace else. The fleet will follow you to the gates of hell and back if you ordered it to do so…"

"You think so?" asked Naomi.

"I know so" Mezoti replied, kissing the top of her head. "You know…" she purred as one of her hands dropped down to Naomi's breasts, "We've been married for nearly twenty years, and I've never done it in a starship's ready room before"

"Captain to Engineering"

"_Engineering_"

"I want a complete Level 1 diagnostic of the Warp Drive, inertial dampeners and the structural integrity field"

"_Are you sure_?" asked the Engineer. "_That could take hours_" and Mezoti penetrated the uniform top and squeezed her breasts.

"Mmmm…" she said dreamily. "There's no real rush… Captain out" a shiver of delight went over her as Mezoti brought her other hand into play.

"This is sooo naughty" she said. "We are so going to get caught" the Norcadian giggled.

"Captain to Bridge"

"_Bridge. Azan here_"

"Azan, I want you to ensure nobody comes in here, or that I am disturbed for the next three hours"

"_I will comply_" Naomi saw her opening and went for it – going for Mezoti's unprotected sides and launching a tickling attack.

"Thank _YOU_, Azan…" she squeaked in surprise.

"_You are welcome. Bridge out_" and the channel closed. The pair of them sank to the floor and became too busy for very much else

#

"Is the Captain alright?" asked an Ensign.

"I would say so" Rebi replied.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" a yell came from inside the ready room, and something impacted the ready room doors. The Ensign jumped up and was heading towards the entrance when Azan told him to leave it alone.

"But she is in pain. She could be in great danger" the Ensign said.

"That is very unlikely" Rebi shook his head and went back to his work – muttering about innocent minded Ensigns. Hours later, and _Voyager_ began the long trip back to the station

#

"Yellow Alert" came the order.

"Aye, Sir" the officer at Ops said. "All decks report Yellow Alert" he added after a moment.

"Slow to half impulse" Azan ordered. "And start scanning the area" and the officers went to work. Whilst both he and Rebi were civilians, it was well known by all that a command from them was as a command from Naomi herself, and that nearly everyone would do as asked.

"Slow to one half impulse. Aye, Sir" the helm officer said.

"Scanning" the stand in Science officer said. "Picking up multiple contacts at the edge of sensor range. Can't make them out clearly at this range"

"Helm, continue course and speed" Rebi said.

"Aye"

"Readings becoming a little clearer now" the Science Officer said. "Reading large chunks of debris. Readings seem to indicate Federation hull types… No power sources detected… No lifepods, EVA suits or bodies in the flotsam…"

"Move us to within twenty thousand kilometres" Azan said, then looked over the bridge to his twin who shook his head.

"Debris is showing signs of massive thermal heat, explosives and impact damage" the Science officer continued. "From the amount of the debris, I'm sorry, Sirs, but it can only be Starbase 12. From the looks of it, it was completely destroyed"

"You think?" Helm said.

"Steady, Ensign" Science replied icily.

"All stop" Azan ordered. "All sensors to record as much information as possible" he added.

"Bridge to Naomi" Rebi called.

"_Naomi here_" her voice was marred by a giggle from Mezoti in the background.

"You better get up here" Rebi said. "Starbase 12 is… gone"

"_We're on our way_"

#

"Report!" Naomi shouted out as she and Mezoti stepped out of the turbolift.

"Starbase 12 has been destroyed" Azan said as Mezoti dismissed the other science officer. She muttered something as she worked the console with an expert hand.

"What is it, Mez?" Naomi asked, coming over to stand behind her.

"Apart from the already registered thermal damage to the outer hull and explosive damage to the inner hull, I am detecting traces of high yield Photon and Quantum torpedoes. Some of the debris seems to be from shuttles and other small spacecraft, but I can detect no signs of debris from any of the attacking vessels" Mezoti frowned over the sensor data.

"I can not believe that an entire Starbase was destroyed without firing back" Azan said.

"But evidence says otherwise" Naomi pointed out. "Scan the area for traces of Warp travel over the last twenty four hours, and then remove the traces of vessels on a heading for Voyager Station" and Mezoti used every working sensor they had.

"Eliminating the trails of ships coming from or going to Voyager Station, I can detect the signatures of at least twenty heavy cruiser type starships coming from two different locations. One set is from Orion VII, and the other trail leads directly to only one place…"

"Where?" asked Rebi quietly.

"The trail leads directly to Sector 001" Mezoti said.

"Can you pick out any of the vessels?" Azan asked, but Mezoti shook her head.

"I might be able to do something with the labs on the station" she said. "I've recorded as much as I need" and then Mezoti paled as something hit her. "Denise and Rankush… they were supposed to be on the Starbase for treatment"

"Maybe they got off" said Azan.

"I doubt it" Naomi said. "I doubt that they let anybody escape. Mez, scan for high levels of subspace radiation or disturbances that would stop a ship going to warp"

"Scanning… Subspace disturbances detected. Fading in intensity. These happened _after _the rest of the fleet arrived here, or continued on to Voyager Station. One other effect would have been to block out any possible contact with the rest of the fleet" Mezoti left her station to stand by Naomi. "This wasn't a battle… it was a slaughter"

"Assuming that we use every engineer in the fleet and the station, how long will it take to put _Voyager_ back together again?" Naomi asked.

"Two weeks"

"Get started on listing repairs. I want _Voyager_ to leave drydock in one week" Naomi ordered.

"That is impossible by every standard"

"Then _make_ it possible" the tone in Naomi's voice made all three of the former drones shudder.

"What are you planning on doing?" asked Mezoti as Naomi moved and sat in the Captain's chair.

"We're doing running and hiding from those bastards. If they want a fight to end it all, then they can have it!" Naomi flicked the viewscreen off. "In one and a half weeks' time, we will set course for Earth and end this once and for all. Helm, move us around the debris, and then take us direct to Voyager Station – maximum warp" and the Helm complied, and minutes later the starship jumped to warp once more.

#

Hours later, Naomi was holding a council of war with Mezoti, the twins and Icheb who had not stopped off at Starbase 12 as previously thought. The five of them plotted a battle to end the civil war once and for all. The _Enterprise_ was moved out of dock, and _Voyager_ put in its place. Almost before the umbilicals were connected to the ship, engineers from all over the fleet poured over her damaged parts and started the monumental task of rebuilding a starship in the space of one week. As repair crew worked around the clock repairing most of the ships, exhausted vessel crews spent the week on the station using the holosuites and every other leisure device they had. More ships arrived in ones, twos and threes from where they had been hiding or fighting other battles from.

"Damn and fuck it…" Mezoti pressed her hand to the bleeding cut along her forearm. She had cut it whilst attempting to rig up more power lines for the shields. One of the lines had exploded and sent pieces of panel into her arm and creating deep wounds which bled heavily.

"You need a doctor" Naomi said, pressing a towel to the cut.

"Please state the nature" said a voice, "Of the medical emergency"

**A/N:**

**Yes, I know the title is spelt wrong, but it sort of rhymes, to be honest i dont have the times**

**Chapter 9 will have the fleet gather from all over the place with chapter 10 being the final chapter. Chapter 11 will have... (smiles)**

**Bonus points awarded to anyone who can tell me where the vessels mentioned here are from.**

**Pixel And Stephanie Forever**


	9. THE END IS NIGH!

**THE END IS NIGH! **

The Doctor told his tale over dinner that evening with the old _Voyager_ crew listening with rapt attention. The hologram knew that Naomi was not to blame for the bombing, and so he had gathered his family together and escaped using the _Delta_ Flyer – along with the EMH Mark Two. Knowing that Martok would aid a friend of his house, the group had done a dog leg course into Klingon space. It had only been when a message had been intercepted confirming that Naomi and friends were still alive that the group had set off back into Federation Space and gone directly to Voyager Station.

"I understand that you are planning on bypassing Section 31 vessels and bases, and travelling directly to Earth" the Doctor said.

"We have no choice" Naomi said. "We need to strike at the very heart of the beast, and you just know that Nechayev is going to lord it in Starfleet Command. We'll give them a chance to surrender and then fire to win"

"I would like to be present" the Doctor said. "We have faced countless battles together, and I can not miss this one after all…"

"Does your wife know?" Icheb asked.

"No, but she'll understand when I tell her. Speaking of surprises, I nearly forgot something…" and the hologram led the way down the many decks to the landing pad the _Delta Flyer_ was sitting on. The group felt a lot of memories come over them as they saw the gleaming hull of the vessel from _Voyager_'s past. Chancellor Martok was in a generous mood when he asked me to give you this" and he opened the hatch to the aft area.

To reveal an operational cloaking device

#

Ships continued to make the journey to Voyager Station in small groups, and repairs and rearmament took place throughout the fleet. Acting with very little knowledge outside a small group, _Voyager_'s transwarp drive was removed and installed on the _Honour_. The Cloaking device had been put aboard several hours before, and the starship departed to travel directly to the heart of the Federation. Naomi needed to know exactly what ships they would be facing, where any defence posts were and what patrol routes the vessels took. Whilst Icheb was on his vital mission, Naomi and the rest of the old _Voyager_ gang took the _Delta_ _Flyer_ out for a day or two of high speed running and exploring. When they had returned, Icheb informed them that there where heavy concentrations of vessels around Jupiter, Mars and Earth. A number of satellites orbited the Earth and appeared to be defence platforms. They contained phaser cannons and torpedoes, and Naomi knew it would be hard to beat that final line. She was hoping that some of the vessels might make a switch, but she didn't know how many would do so which caused her great concern.

"I see no problem" the Doctor said.

"It is one thing to defend ourselves and use force to help people like we have done before" Naomi sighed, taking a swig from her brandy, "But to initiate combat against our own forces in our own backyard… that's a new one" she shook her head. A small number of _Defiant_s had been sent to Pluto to keep a watchful eye on the vessels coming in and out of Sector 001. They had orders to not start a fight, but they were permitted to defend themselves and attempt an escape. Should that not be possible, they were to wipe the computers, melt them with phaser fire and explosives, engage Auto Destruct and abandon ship.

"What we are doing is right and just" Icheb said, "But it is going to cost a lot in damage and death" he added.

"Can we not disable the ships?" asked the Doctor.

"A few of them, but not every ship they have in system" Azan said.

"_Ops to Captain Wildman_"

"Wildman here"

"_We've just received word from Task Force Foxtrot. They have just spotted all Section 31 _Defiant_s and _Legacy_s heading in to assist the fleet_" there was a hesitation in the voice.

"What else is going on?" Naomi asked.

"_They report that Section 31 are going to bomb the Luna colonies, and start raiding and executing rebels there and on Earth_"

"Bring the fleet to Yellow Alert, and have all Captains and First Officers report on board the station in twenty minutes" Naomi ordered. "Oh, and have everything sent to my quarters" she added.

"What are we going to do?" asked the Doctor.

"Fulfil Starfleet's primary mission directive – defend the Federation against all enemies both foreign and domestic" Naomi told him. "I am placing you in command of all medical teams throughout the fleet and on the station. I want you to be ready for heavy casualties" and the hologram nodded with a sad understanding of the situation.

"_Voyager_ is still some time from being space worthy" Azan said.

"How long until you get her fit for transwarp speeds?" Naomi asked, downloading the information sent to her by Ops to a PADD.

"Well the hull is in place, the SIF is operating in stationary mode but the deflector and other systems are being rebuilt" Rebi said. "If we rushed repairs then I estimate thirty six hours to get everything done" he added.

"Weapons and shields are still down" Azan said. "We know that its something to do with the power conduits, but they are located deep in the guts of the ship. We are replacing them as we find faults, but testing takes a lot of time and we may discover more faults" and Naomi chewed that over in her head.

"Then you best get started as quickly as possible" she said. "You have two days to get all essential repairs finished. Anything that isn't finished will have to be completed en route" the twins nodded and left for the drydock.

"I should get back to the _Honour_ before the meeting" said Icheb.

"Hold it" Naomi said. "You already know what I want to do, Icheb" Naomi looked at him with a grim knowledge of what was to come. "At Warp 9.5 it will take you forty eight hours to get from here to Wolf 359. You are going to take the fleet and head off before us. We'll finish as much as possible, then we'll catch you up using the transwarp drive" and her friend knew what she was planning.

"You want me and the ships to hide there until you have arrived" he said. "The radiation caused by the detonation of so many warp cores will mask our power signatures"

"If you excuse me" Mezoti spoke, "I think I better get started on fixing the main sensors" and she left to help the twins.

"May I assume that you are going to use the cloaking device in some way?" Icheb asked Naomi.

"If the ship can not take transwarp drive, then we'll head to you under conventional warp drive with the cloak activated. If any Section 31 vessel is cloaked and sees us appearing, they will assume that we are merely a decoy force and send their fleet off to the alternate target" Naomi said.

"Where is that?"

"Beta Durani" Naomi looked at the time. "Best go meet the landed gentry" and the friends left together.

#

"… an hour ago" Naomi stood on the upper level of the promenade and looked below her at the Captains and First Officers of all the various ships gathered together. "Our small group listening in to enemy comm traffic picked up attack orders for the Section 31 loyal vessels to bomb the Luna colonies and for their troops to raid homes and take people away for execution. That is something that I am not going to allow to happen. I have called you here to announce that we are returning to Sector 001 in force, disable or destroy any enemy vessel and arrest Admiral Nechayev and the rest of the leadership and lock them up once and for all. This is likely to be a one way trip, so I want you to return to your ships and tell your crews what the situation is. Signal your intention to go by raising your shields. I will not hold it against you if you wish to remain. If it turns out that there are not enough ships, then I will lead an assault with all those willing to join me using _Voyager_ and ramming the ship into Starfleet HQ and kill the Admiral myself. Because of extensive damage to _Voyager_ in her last engagement, we will not be going with you at first. We are going to make as many repairs as possible in thirty six hours, and then jump to Wolf 359 and meet you there using our transwarp drive" Naomi waited for the murmurs to go down. "I am more then aware that a number of you outrank him, but the convoy will be under the command of Captain Icheb of the _Honour_ until _Voyager_ arrives. I want you to follow his orders as if they were my own. Once you have arrived at Wolf 359, you will take your normal communication systems offline and communicate using laser link only. I know it is a primitive method, but it is the only way that Section 31 can not break without someone letting them know what we are doing" Naomi looked down at the faces below her. "If there are no more questions, then you should return to your ships and brief your crews. Departure of the convoy will be at 1920. Dismiss"

#

The bridge of _Voyager_ was a building site as work crews rushed to get the vessel fit for travel at transwarp speeds. They also had to fix weapons and shields, clear up the last minute jobs and then go after the convoy.

"Computer, what time is it?" asked Naomi.

'_The time is 0235_'

"No wonder I feel tired" said Mezoti – half inside some circuitry.

"How about we call it quits for tonight and let the crews work this one through the night?" Naomi said. "I could do with something to eat and a few hours in bed" and they finished the job at hand before beaming over to the station and sleeping for a number of hours in their warm and comfortable beds. Naomi could not sleep very well, so she slipped out of bed put on some slippers and a dressing gown and went up to Ops. She sat at the Science station and listened in to the chatter around the nerve centre of the station. If everything was going to plan, the fleet should be halfway to Wolf 359 by now.

"Captain?" a young Ensign was by Naomi's side.

"Yes?"

"Would you like a cup?" the young woman was offering a mug of hot chocolate.

"Thank you" Naomi sipped at it. "Reminds me of the old days on _Voyager_. One time we waited in a nebula, fixed some broken stuff and drank hot chocolate whilst the enemy went pas-" she suddenly stopped in mid sentence.

"Captain?" the Ensign was worried.

"The enemy went past us…" Naomi looked at the other officer. "Are there any nebulas that a number of ships could hide in without being found between here and Wolf 359?" she asked.

"Just the one" said the Ensign. "The Paulson Nebula is fairly close to it. The _Enterprise-D_ hid in it during the Borg Invasion of 2366 before the Borg flushed them out with magnetic charges…" the Ensign realised what Naomi was talking about.

"Yellow Alert" Naomi said.

"Aye" and Ops swung into action.

'_General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands on deck! All hands on deck!_' the computer intoned.

"Naomi to Mezoti"

"_Mezoti_"

"Mez, I think the fleet is going to be in trouble. Get dressed, board _Voyager_ and begin a power up of all systems" Naomi said.

"_But she is still hours away from being ready_" Mezoti said, getting up and grabbing the nearest clothes by the sound of it.

"I know, but we have run out of time" Naomi closed the channel. "Check all subspace channels. I bet that you are getting a lot of interference" and one of the other officers nodded grimly.

"Can't get through on any channels at this distance" came the report.

"How many people do we have on the station? Officers and crew I mean" Naomi added.

"Three hundred and fifty" said the Ensign. "Though some are medical people only" she went on.

"Have most of them report to _Voyager_" Naomi said. "Pity all the helm officers went with the fleet" she muttered.

"I can fly a shuttle" the Ensign said.

"Right – you're driving" Naomi said, "And you are a Lieutenant as of now"

"Aye, Captain!" and the newly promoted woman rushed for the turbolift.

"Computer, site to site transport. One to beam directly to _Voyager_'s bridge" and the station's computer transported Naomi to the bridge of her ship.

#

"Captain?" Icheb looked to his left.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I am picking up some massive subspace disturbances in the local area. They are maintaining a course and speed to intercept…" the science officer fell silent as the readings changed. "Vessels decloaking" and on the screen a number of Klingon Vorcha class ships decloaked along with a Bird of Prey and a Romulan Warbird.

"We are being hailed" said Icheb's Ops officer.

"On screen" he ordered.

"_Hail Captain!_" Martok boomed.

"General Martok" Icheb tilted his head. "It is strange to see you at this moment of time" he said.

"_A mutual friend of ours told me of your fight, and that you planned to go directly to Earth. As a friend of both my House and of the Empire, I have come to fight at your side. Where is Captain Wildman?_" Martok asked with a frown.

"Naomi will be catching up with us later" Icheb said. "_Voyager_ needs some more repairs before leaving Voyager Station" he explained.

"_Where would you like me to position my ship_?" asked Terrik.

"The Empire knows where you are?" asked Icheb.

"_No…_" Terrik said, "_But I have no doubt that they soon will do. Captain Wildman saved my ship and my crew when she was not obliged to. I am repaying that debt_"

"_Perhaps there is another Romulan with honour_"

"_Where_?" asked Terrik. There was a few seconds pause before Martok broke into a baritone level laugh.

"Excuse me, Sirs" said the science officer. "But I am picking up a large number of ships ahead of us. Estimate seven hours until they enter weapons range"

"_Battle Alert_" said Martok.

"_Crew to combat stations_" Terrik ordered.

"Yellow Alert" Icheb said.

"_Forget about our ranks, Captain_" Martok said. "_I place my ships under your command_"

"_I will also follow your orders_" Terrik noted.

"Very well" Icheb nodded acknowledgement. "It is unlikely that the ships have detected you, so get back under cloak and keep to the lower side of the fleet. Naomi should arrive in a couple of hours"

# # # # #

"Warp 6" said the newly promoted Lieutenant.

"Bring the transwarp drive online" Naomi ordered. The departure had been so quick that Naomi was still wearing the same clothing. She briefly thought that she had a new record to mark in her service jacket – the first Captain to take the bridge in dressing gown and slippers.

"Understood" Azan said – hair slightly askew. He had taken the quickest of showers before donning a fresh tunic and boarding the vessel. His twin was in exactly the same state.

"Engineering reports repairs should be completed in five hours time" Rebi said.

"Transwarp drive standing by at your command" Azan said to Naomi.

"Helm, engage the Transwarp drive" she ordered, and the ship made several cracks as it jumped into transwarp space.

"Successful jump" helm reported. "We are at 100% of rated power"

"Bridge to Engineering" Naomi called down.

"_Engineering_"

"Increase power to the Transwarp Drive" Naomi gave the order that made most of them look up in surprise.

"_But we are already at 100% power_" said the voice.

"Well get me 110% power" Naomi said. "Bridge out. Helm, recompute our arrival time at Wolf 359" and the ship's background hum picked up a little as the engine room pushed more power through the captured Borg drive then was designed.

"Estimate arrival in four and one quarter hours"

"Override all safeties and go to 115% on the Transwarp drive" Naomi said. The eyes of the twins widened just a fraction as they complied.

"She'll fly apart" said the Lieutenant.

"Fly her apart then!" Naomi snapped.

"Aye, Captain. Estimate arrival in two hours and thirty seven minutes"

"Can we send them a message?" asked Naomi, but Mezoti shook her head.

"Our comm system is down for repairs" she said. "And we lack the technology for transwarp subspace communications" and Naomi growled.

"How long until we get in range for communications?" she asked.

"At this rate of speed, approximately an hour and a half"

"Maintain course and speed. Steady as she goes, Helm" Naomi ordered. "I want Yellow Alert in forty five minutes. I want everybody who can help to get the communication system online, and I want a full set of torpedoes in the tubes. Keep phasers warmed up but not charged. If we get in the middle of a fight, then I want us all ready in a hurry" she looked at her friends. "Can you three work on rigging the main deflector to emit a series of pulses?" she asked.

"I would think that Section 31 have been working on our weapon" said Rebi.

"I don't mean for use as a weapon. I mean as high frequency pitched noises" Naomi said. "Something that will cut through most jamming attempts" and the three of them started planning ideas at once.

"What about you?" asked Mezoti.

"I will go and put on some clothes" her wife replied. "You have the bridge" and she went to her shared quarters to put on a uniform.

# # # # #

"Admiral, we have detected ships near the Wolf 359 system" an aide reported.

"How many?" asked Nechayev.

"Between seventy and ninety vessels" the aide replied. "Our ambush has been set, and they have not detected them" they added.

"Good" Nechayev said. "Soon we will wipe out the rebels, kill those that oppose us and become the rulers of the Alpha Quadrant"

# # # # #

"We are now within normal communications range" said Mezoti.

"Helm, drop us out of transwarp speed" Naomi ordered. "Take us down slowly through warp to a dead stop"

"Aye" the Lieutenant said. "Controls reading full stop" and Naomi could feel a small vibration that told her they had dropped out of Transwarp speeds. It was said by nearly everybody that you couldn't tell when you went slower then light speed, but veterans of space travel will say otherwise.

"Energise the main deflector" Naomi glanced at Mezoti.

"Energising"

"Now reading full stop"

"Deflector charged" Mezoti said.

"Start the message…" and Naomi watched as her wife started tapping at a single key on the science station.

# # # # #

"Status report" Icheb asked.

"On course for Wolf 359" said his helm officer.

"Captain!" the science officer sounded confused.

"What is it?"

"I am picking up a series of pulsed tachyons" came the reply. "They seem to be in a pattern. Running them through the computer now"

"Put it up on the main screen" Icheb ordered, and the main viewer came to life with a series of dots and dashes.

"Morse!" Boender exclaimed from the rear Operations station. "Captain, that is old fashioned morse code" he said.

"Can you translate it?" Icheb asked.

"I think so, Captain" Boender moved closed to the screen. "Some of it seems to be the same letters over and over… 'U U U U U U clouds… U U U U U U clouds… Remember the Norcadians… Remember the Norcadians… U U U U U U…' message repeats, Sir" Boender was puzzled by the message.

"Captain Wildman?" suggested the Operations officer.

"Could the message be garbled in any way?" asked Icheb.

"No, Sir" Boender replied. "If I remember rightly, U was the old flag and morse code for 'You are standing into danger' but I don't understand the rest of the message" he said.

"Clouds…?" Icheb was puzzled. "Why would Naomi send a message lik-" he stopped talking as everything fell into place. They had hidden from the Norcadian fleet that had attacked them by hiding in a nebula during the return to the Alpha Quadrant. Naomi had to be warning him of grave danger. "Isn't there a nebula around here?"

"The Paulson Nebula" said the helm.

"Red Alert!" Icheb shouted. "All hands to battle stations. Have the rest of the fleet do the same" just as sensors started beeping.

"Enemy vessels coming out of the nebula" the tactical officer said. "I read twenty vessels made up of _Akira_, _Steamrunner_, _Centaur_ and _Sabre_ class ships plus the _Sovereign_" he said.

"Lock weapons on the lead ships, bring us about and prepare to engage the enemy" Icheb said.

"Reading more vessels coming out of the nebula" said the tactical officer. "All _Defiant_ class ships – forty in total"

"_Forty_?" Icheb exclaimed. "How did they get so many? They must have been building them for years before they took over" he mused.

"Weapons ready and locked onto lead vessels" the tactical officer.

"Captain Icheb to all vessels. Lock weapons onto the lead ships and standby to open fire" and the bridge was shaken as the Section 31 vessels fired the first rounds.

"Somebody forgot to mention they have improved weapons" said the science officer in an annoyed tone.

"Helm, all ahead full!" Icheb said. "Open fire the moment they are at the maximum phaser range" he added, gripping the arms of his seat tightly.

# # # # #

After the message had been sent a couple of times, _Voyager_ resumed the dash to the rest of the fleet. The moment they had set off, Naomi had ordered everyone to report to battle stations. Every critical station was double manned in Engineering, and the phaser and torpedo control rooms were manned in the same manner.

"Report" Naomi said. She was pacing around the bridge and willing the ship to go faster.

"On course to arrive at the fleet's expected location in fifteen minutes present speed" the helm reported.

"Go faster" Naomi said simply.

"We're already at 115% of rated power" Azan said as a warning note. "If we go any faster, then the drive will burn itself out" but Naomi understood this.

"If we don't burn it out, then there might not be much of a fleet left to have risked our lives for" she said.

"And to think I really wanted to live…" muttered Rebi as he increased power to the drive. "Transwarp drive now at 120% of rated power. Drive unit is beginning to overheat"

"Keep on top of it" Naomi said, feeling a little shudder running up the deck plates.

"I shall decrease the temperature in the compartment" Azan said. "That may give us some kind of control, but I will have to vent that compartment the moment we go to impulse" he added.

"Understood" Naomi said.

"Arrival at fleet location now at seven minutes thirty seconds" helm reported.

"Attention all hands, this is the Captain. We are about to enter the battle in a little over six minutes" Naomi said, and everyone heard her voice over the ship wide intercom. "I want everybody buttoned up tight and ready the moment we drop to impulse. One thing more… we didn't start this fight, but we are sure as hell going to finish it. Wildman out" she moved over to Science and kissed Mezoti on the lips.

"What was that for?" asked the woman.

"Just in case…" Naomi said, and Mezoti understood very well what she meant by the gesture. Members of the bodged together crew all over _Voyager_ waited and counted down the last few minutes on displays at their stations.

# # # # #

"WHO WAS THAT?" asked Icheb over the noise of the alarms.

"We just lost the _Churchill, Shannon _and_ Hibernia_" said his science officer.

"Damage report"

"Damage to decks 3 through 9. Shields down to 78%" Engineering said.

"_Kim Jong il_ has destroyed _South Korea_" science called out.

"YES!" cried somebody. "We've only been waiting sixty odd years..."

"Have the _Vorcha_s go after the _Defiant_s" Icheb said. "All larger vessels to take on the _Akira_s and the _Steamrunner_s"

"Target bearing 013"

"Lock on and fire!" and at Icheb's order, the _Honour_'s mighty weapons blazed out and struck the _Sovereign_. The other ship's shield glowed under the phaser barrage, and flickered when hit by torpedoes. Debris littered the battlefield, and a number of disabled and out of control vessels drifted around – making everything more hazardous.

"I'm reading another starship coming in…" science said.

"Damn…" Icheb said softly.

"It's the _Voyager_!" came an excited shout, and Icheb watched in amazement as the gleaming ship dropped out of transwarp and fired on the nearest couple of vessels.

"Voyager _to_ Honour" Naomi's voice came over the ship to ship channel. "_What was the idea starting this dance without me_?"

"Sorry, Naomi" Icheb smiled. "But a couple wanted to party early" he said.

"_Catch you on the next song_" Naomi laughed. "_Moving to engage…_"

# # # # #

"Target weapons, shields and engines" Naomi said.

"Aye, Captain" and _Voyager_'s phasers lashed out and torpedoes flew all over. The battle was long, difficult and hard. Most of the more nimble ships had been equipped with ablative armour, and that took some of the firepower the free ships could fling at them. The combined Klingon and Romulan force punched their way through the many _Defiant_s that stood in their path, and a large group of damaged vessels disengaged and warped out of the area and towards Earth. The fleet ignored any offers of a termed surrender, and disabled all the remaining enemy vessels and left them drifting without main power. Their side had taken heavy losses and they had lost twenty ships outright, twelve damaged beyond repair and fifteen heavily damaged. The others all had varying degrees of damaged, but they could still manoeuvre and fight. The worst case of the wounded were placed on the fastest vessels and ordered back to Voyager Station at maximum warp all the way. A quick poll of the remaining senior officers had resulted in the decision to continue all the way to Sector 001 and finish the job they had started. Even if they set up a blockade around the system to stop them from getting out, Section 31 would still have more then enough time to repair damage and finish the ships still on slips. After the seriously wounded on both sides were evacuated, the fleet regrouped and headed at a cruising speed of Warp 6 to the heart of the Federation. The rest of the survivors of the Section 31 loyal ships were left in their disabled ships because they were not going anywhere fast.

# # # # #

"Damage report" Naomi said. She had been in her ready room in conference with Icheb, Martok, Terrik and several other senior commanders.

"All hull damage has been repaired" said Azan. "We suffered only a few minor plates buckled. All defensive and offensive systems are fully operational" he added.

"This is odd…" Mezoti said.

"What is?" Naomi looked over at her.

"According to sensors, there isn't a single ship to stop us between Pluto and Earth" Mezoti frowned in concentration at her console.

"Nothing…?"

"No patrol ships, no customs vessels… just a couple of shuttles on a direct course to Mars" Mezoti looked at Naomi. "Of course they might have cloaking devices…"

"Possible, but very unlikely" said Rebi from his position at Engineering.

"Focus sensors on Utopia Planetia" Naomi said. "What state are ships in there?" she asked.

"Scanning…" Mezoti tapped a few buttons. "About a dozen ships under construction and many more under repair or refit" she expanded.

"How many could be put out to attack us as we pass?" Naomi asked.

"I would say all of the ships under repair" Mezoti said, turning to face her wife directly. "I can not tell if they will actually attack or not"

"Well we're about to find out" Naomi said. "Helm, slow us to sublight"

"Aye, Captain"

"Plot our course to bring us within weapons range of Utopia's perimeter defences" Naomi ordered.

"What are you planning on doing?" asked Azan.

"Some of the people that used to be under my command might still be there. They could be controlling the weapons. When we come within weapon range, we're going to drop our shields and see what happens" Naomi said.

"If they fire with our shields down, then we might not be able to respond" Rebi said.

"True, but I will not attack and those people simply forced into working with Section 31 because of families being held hostage" Naomi said.

"I'll remind you of that in heaven" Mezoti said.

"Didn't you know?" Naomi asked her. "We're going to live in hell"

"If our heat shields work…" Azan laughed as he adjusted something on his console.

# # # # #

"Admiral, they have entered the system" Nechayev's aide reported.

"Have all ships meet them in orbit of Jupiter" the Admiral ordered. "They are to utterly destroy the enemy vessels. The same goes for the non Starfleet vessels. It is clear that Wildman is using outside help in her attacks – she must be stopped" Nechayev said.

"What about the platforms?" asked the aide.

"Bring them online, then pass control of them to me and me alone" the crazed woman ordered. After the other person had left, Nechayev brought up a program she had been working on for a while and got it ready for uploading. Once control had been passed to her, she transferred it and then reached for the phaser in her desk drawer…

# # # # #

"Just look at them…" breathed an officer. The oncoming fleet had done enough to shore up the damage, and the line of vessels could see the gaping wounds in many vessels, missing nacelles, leaking oxygen from hull breaches and flickering shields. Despite the heavy pounding they had taken, they were still oncoming and willing to go down fighting for their cause.

"Any message from Starfleet?" asked the Captain of the lead ship.

"They have entered weapons range" said the tactical officer.

"No word from Command" said his Operations officer. "Or Section 31. Nor from Admiral Nechayev" she added.

"Closing to within point blank range!" the Captain watched as sensors indicated his ship was the first to be targeted, and saw torpedo tubes glow with energy.

"Bloody hell! This has gone on far enough" he exclaimed. "ALL SHIPS STAND DOWN! ALL SHIPS STAND DOWN!" and he mashed his hand on the comm panel. "This is Captain Benedict Arnold to Captain Wildman. Request permission to join the fleet"

"_Permission granted, Captain Arnold_" Naomi's voice filtered over the ship to ship link. "_But be warned that you will face a general court martial for your actions in supporting Section 31_"

# # # # #

The defecting vessels assumed station on the flanks of the formation, and they sailed past the Utopia Planetia shipyard unmolested by any ship or defence system. They picked up the last of the Section 31 loyal ships arranged in a defence of Earth, and they came to a full stop just outside weapons range. The fleet faced an armada of heavy cruisers, frigates, fighters and a design that nobody seemed to know of.

"What is her name?" asked Naomi.

"Unknown" Mezoti said. "She is not transmitting any kind of transponder code, and I can't see any hull markings of any sort" she looked over at her wife. "I can see she is there, but I can not tell who she is. The computer keeps bringing up vessel registries for over a hundred years ago" and Naomi assumed they had a glitch in the library computer.

"Hail it" she ordered. "Perhaps we'll get an ID on the signal packet"

"No response"

"Icheb is hailing us" Azan announced.

"On screen"

"_I see that you haven't been allowed to know our big friend's name_" he said dryly.

"We can't identify it" Naomi admitted. "And the odd thing is that they are all sitting there waiting. We locked weapons on them, but nothing seems to provoke them"

"_Shall we attack_?" asked Icheb, and Naomi shook her head.

"We'll wait for them to make the first move. If they don't seem to be doing anything in the next ten minutes, then we'll move in – but not before" she said.

"_Understood_" Icheb said, and he blinked off the screen.

"You know…" began the tactical officer. "She looks awfully like a refitted _Federation_ class vessel" and the rest of the bridge turned to face him.

"I don't think I have ever heard of the class before" Naomi said. "What is it?"

"The class was built in 2260 to 2262 as members of Starfleet's first Dreadnaughts. Most of them were decommissioned by 2312 and sent for scrapping, but the _Star Empire_ never reached Quador II on her final voyage" the tactical officer explained.

"What happened?" Azan asked.

"Some details are still unknown" replied the tactical officer. "But what we do know is that she sent out a distress call, but the ships arriving to save the skeleton crew in the shuttlepods. According to them, a Klingon Bird of Prey decloaked to give them a message, and when they dropped shields to beam it over, the Klingons attacked and _Star Empire_ was boarded and the ship taken over. The ship was last seen heading into deep space, and she was never seen or heard from again… Kind of like the _Trigati_ when you think of it" he chuckled at the end.

"What would Nechayev want with an old vessel like that?" Naomi wondered aloud. "Even after a couple of refits she would be outclassed…"

"If she was given weapon upgrades, new engines and additional hull plating and strengthened shields, then she'd be able to engage several capital sized ships _at once_" the tactical officer said.

"Naomi to Martok and Terrik"

"_Standing by_"

"_I am here_"

"Attach both of your ships to the Destroyer Wing. We are going to need all the firepower we can muster if we are to blow her out of the skies" Naomi issued the orders. "Azan, open a hailing frequency"

"Channel open"

"Commander, _Star Empire_ squadron. You are ordered to stand down your ships and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply with this order will result in my opening fire on your ship with loss of life" Naomi said, but there was no reply. "Are they getting this?" she asked Azan.

"Channel is clear – they are receiving loud and clear" he replied.

"Captain, _USS Star Empire_, this is Captain Naomi Wildman of the starship _Voyager_. You don't have to do this you know… What Admiral Nechayev has done is in violation of Starfleet regulations, Federation and Interstellar law. She has personally order the bombing of civilian targets, issued directives to kill survivors from the attacks and those on starships. Yes, our weapons are activated. Yes, our weapons are locked onto your ships, but we doing this only because you and the rest of Section 31 and sympathetic others have forced us to take up arms against our own side" Naomi paused as she looked at the gleaming black hull of the _Star Empire_. "Attention _Star Empire _Squadron. I have been told that the Klingons and Romulans were part of the attack on Spacedock, but that is not true at all. As you can see, a Klingon detachment is present among us. The Romulan Warbird is here because her commander owes me a debt for saving his ship and his crew from destruction at Orion VII. For months now, we have been hiding and running from the evil that Section 31 and their supporters have been dealing with. These are your husbands, your wives, your sons and your daughters whose loyalties have never wavered. For their sake and yours, we have come home…" Naomi made her way to sit in the Captain's seat. "_Voyager_ to fleet. Confirm targeting solutions and ahead one quarter impulse power. All ships… cleared to engage"

**A/N:**

**Very sad to hear ab****out the Dear Leader's death, so I decided to grant good old Kimmie one of his wishes in fanfic form - hence the little celebration one officer does**


	10. The End Of The Road

**The End Of The Road **

The battle was long, hard and costly to those on both sides. _Star Empire_ every single hit, and just kept on coming. It had wiped out over half of the Destroyer Wing on its own, and the remaining _Excelsiors _and _Ambassadors_ limped on with heavy damage.

"Helm, bring us about to 234 mark 112" Naomi shouted over the alarms that rang over the bridge. "Tactical! Target the _Galaxy_ class ship to port. Fire full force at their aft shields" but no reply came as the ship lurched violently from an impact from the starboard side. Everyone was thrown off their feet except Mezoti, the twins and Naomi who gripped onto consoles or chair arms respectively. "Damage report!" she shouted.

"Port shields have failed. Hull breach on Deck 4. Hull integrity down to 67%" Azan said.

"Fire all weapons" Naomi ordered, but no reply came once more. When Naomi realised that no action had been taken, she turned round in her seat to find the tactical officer with a ceiling beam running through his head and into the floor through part of the console – quite dead. "Rebi, get to the Engineering station and use it for weapons" Naomi ordered.

"Aye, Aye, Captain" and vaulted the rail as he replied. "Locked on" Rebi added.

"Fire!" and phasers and torpedoes lashed out and found their mark – overloading the after shields of a _Galaxy_ class vessel and punching right into the hull. Plating buckled and twisted away as the firepower of _Voyager_ ripped right into her corridors and compartments.

"She's drifting out of control" Mezoti said – wiping the blood from her face.

"Destroy her" Naomi gave the order, and the broken vessel was turned into chucks of debris. "Steer 315 ahead one half impulse power. Status report"

"We lost another four ships outright, and seven more are abandoning ship. Enemy vessels have suffered moderate damage. _Star Empire_'s shields are down to 91%" Mezoti said.

"That all we've been able to do?" Naomi whispered. She took a few moments to decide what to do. "Have all ships with Quantum Torpedoes remaining to target the aft shields on _Star Empire_. Once they are down, they are to throw every last firecracker at it until they have crippled one of the impulse units. We have got to strike her somehow"

"Message coming in from Martok" Azan said. "He reports that his cruisers are out of torpedoes"

"Thank him, then tell him to get out of here while he still can" Naomi said.

"Martok says he still has vessels with disrupters operational" Azan said after a moment.

"Never mind…" Naomi smiled grimly. "Transfer power to the forward shields. Helm, bring us about to face _Star Empire_. Rebi, I want you to fire everything you can the moment we face her. She'll be forced to transfer some power from her aft shields to either the forward set or to increase her forward weapons array" and _Voyager_ shook again as they were hit by the mighty ship's photon torpedoes.

"Dorsal shields are gone!" Rebi said.

"Where the hell are our escorts?" Naomi asked.

"We just lost them. They took most of the incoming for us" Mezoti said just as a wave of flames ripped out from the stern of _Star Empire_. It ran in a jagged line over her impulse manifolds, rear launchers and the port nacelle.

"HER SHIELDS ARE DOWN!" Rebi shouted.

"Wildman to all ships. Leave _Star Empire_ to the Destroyer Wing. All other vessels to take on her supporting ships" Naomi said.

"Hang tight" said the wounded officer at helm. "Coming about for another run"

"Rebi, target the sensors on the _Legacy_ to port and fire wh-" but Naomi was cut off by a moan of painful shock.

"Naomi!" Mezoti shouted. "The _Honour_…" and they saw the _Sovereign_ class ship bleeding air from all over, flames licking deep inside her shattered hull and bodies tumbling out of the ship. Naomi nearly broke her chair arm as she slapped open a channel.

"Icheb! Get out of there! Get to the escape pods!" she screamed as if it would help.

"_Too late to get out_" Icheb's voice was distorted from the link – clearly the _Honour_ was in a very bad state. As Icheb continued talking, the channel kept degraded as if the damage was affecting the computer controlled systems. "_Our primary systems are hit. We've got fire on all decks now…_" the crew on _Voyager_'s bridge could hear him sighing sadly. "_There's nothing we can do except-_" but the link was cut as the system damage was too much for the comm channel to handle.

"Icheb?" Naomi shouted "_ICHEB_!" but no reply came from the _Honour_. She came around to starboard, righted herself like a drunken fighter and engaged impulse engines at full burn. The once powerful _Sovereign_ class ship stuck _Star Empire_ amidships on the port side and ploughed right into her. The _Honour_ exploded as the impact detonated her torpedo magazines and fuel stores. The explosion ripped through the other vessel from stem to stern, and, combined with the ramming of the _Honour_ into her side, caused _Star Empire_ to lose all power and begin to flounder in space. She was held together only by the most weak joints of her spaceframe, and she drifted out of the main battle zone.

"Icheb…" tears ran down the faces of the twins, Mezoti and Naomi as they watched the remains of his ship continue to burn in space and explode when the fires reached some combustible point.

"_Star Empire_ is sending out a distress call. She is requesting that ships take her crew onboard" said the helm officer. He did the work himself as Icheb's friends were stunned at his heroic death and sacrifice.

"Not this time…" Naomi whispered. "Not this time you murdering _BASTARDS_!" and she touched a button on the comm panel. "_Voyager_ to all remaining vessels. Target _Star Empire_ with full power phasers and every last torpedo you have. Tear that ship to pieces – _SHOW NO MERCY_" she screamed and Rebi fired every last weapon he had at his disposal. He was not a killer of people in cold blood, but this was something completely different indeed. Within seconds, _Star Empire_'s remains were being turned into their component atoms by the remaining vessels of the free fleet.

"_Star Empire_ has been completely destroyed" Mezoti said quietly. "Other remaining vessels are offering to surrender" she added.

"Are they still firing?" Naomi asked.

"Yes"

"Then so do we" Naomi said, and looked back at the screen that showed the drifting remains of the _Honour_. Not much had been left after the explosion, and some of her hull plating which carried her name and registry number on the nacelles floated past. "Beam those aboard to the ready room" Naomi ordered Azan, and pointed out what she wanted. "Status report"

"Twenty seven vessels destroyed, thirty three crippled beyond repair and the rest are damaged but combat effective" Rebi said.

"What about us?" Naomi asked. "The fleet I mean" she added, and tightened her grip as the inertial dampeners failed to respond quickly enough to the turn to starboard.

"We've lost nearly three quarters of the fleet. The rest of us are either disabled or fighting in some manner" Mezoti said. "The damaged ships are attempting to withdraw, but they are being fired upon by Section 31 ships"

"Damn…" Naomi whispered out loud. "People, we are out gunned, out numbered by the enemy and we have absolutely no way to win. Continue firing until we can no longer do so" she ordered.

"And then what?" asked Azan.

"Then we go to warp, ram and take the biggest bastard down with us and go with honour" and nobody could tell if she meant the idea or meant Icheb's ship.

"All fighting has ceased!" Mezoti shouted from science.

"All ships hold fire" Naomi called, and looked at the devastation that was all around her. All she could was space littered with the broken shells of people and ships both enemy and friend.

# # # # #

"No…" Nechayev whispered. She had been following the battle from her office at Starfleet Command, and couldn't believe that her last remaining vessels had surrendered to Naomi. She vowed not to be taken alive by the brat, and tapped an activation code into her console, put her phaser in her mouth and blew her head apart.

# # # # #

Those ships of Naomi's fleet too damaged to fight were left behind to guard the surrendered vessels. Out of the hundred plus vessels that had started the campaign, only thirteen were in a situation to fight. Another three would be joining them shortly, and that meant just sixteen vessels to blockade Earth and force a surrender of a woman Naomi didn't know was dead. The Klingons and Terrik had gone, and Naomi assumed they had obeyed her order to get out of the fighting. Naomi had waited two hours for shuttles to collect those in suits that had managed to jump off their doomed ships, and then had gone to her quarters with Mezoti and the twins – leaving the bridge in the hands of an experienced Lieutenant. Icheb's loss had struck at her like a blow to the heart from Satan himself, and it had affected her other three friends in just the same way. Icheb had known what he was doing when he had rammed the _Honour_ into the _Star Empire_, and he had done it to ensure victory and, most importantly, to keep his friends alive at the cost of his own ship and life. There was no need to recover the shuttles, so Naomi took the bridge for the final time in the civil war.

"All ships report readiness" said the helm officer. The bridge had been cleared up as much as possible, and the body of the tactical officer had been removed from his station and taken below to the makeshift morgue.

"Set course for Earth orbit – full impulse" Naomi said. The remains of the grand fleet moved off and were approaching Earth within a matter of three hours.

"I am picking up nothing but the defence platforms" Mezoti said.

"You're kidding"

"No… no shuttles, flitters or anything at all. Just the platforms in orbit"

"It can not be this easy" said Azan.

"It _can't_ be" Naomi breathed. She had expected some kind of last ditched attempt to fire upon them, but it seems as if Section 31 had no more ships either with them or willing to fight for them.

"Your orders?" asked Mezoti.

"All stop" Naomi issued the ordered in a business like manner. "Hail Starfleet Command. Use Code 1 and punch it up in the clear. Find me somebody down there that can surrender to me" and the ships sat back with weapons on standby.

# # # # #

A group of Starfleet people and some of the Council had had enough, and they had stormed Nechayev's offices at Starfleet Command with heavy phaser rifles. There had been a small but determined resistance from those opposed to the takeover by Section 31. They smashed her door down and found the dead Admiral with the phaser in her cold lap. One look told them everything they needed to know about how she had died.

"Oh my gods…" said one of the Council members. "She's killed us all" he reached over and opened a channel to the blockading vessels. "I need to speak to Captain Wildman" he said.

# # # # #

"Signal coming in from Starfleet Command" said Azan. "Audio only"

"Put it up, and patch it through to all vessels" Naomi said.

"_Captain Wildman! This is an emergency transmission. Admiral Nechayev is dead. She took her own life before we could arrest her, but she left a message on her desk. Two words: Scorched Earth. Captain, I believe she's turned the defence platforms towards Earth. We can't override the systems here. If you don't stop them, they'll fire in ten minutes_" the Council member's was filled with emotions of worry and desperation amongst others. "_Captain, the phasers and torpedoes on those defence platforms can level 40% of the planet's surface. You have to stop them before they can fire!_"

"Wildman to attack fleet. You heard the message – all ships fire at will" Naomi said, and then pressed a button on her chair. "I need you"

"_We are there_" Terrik said, and decloaked along with Martok's Bird of Prey. The platforms altered their positioning and started firing on the attacking vessels. The ships split up to take out as many as possible in the short time they had left before the platforms fired their main arsenal on the planet's surface. _Voyager_ was pounded like a punching bag from multiple hits, and the ship was making a mighty effort to stay in operation. From the reports that Azan was giving her, _Voyager_ had cracked her spaceframe all the way down to the welding joints, and it was clear the she'd never make the jump to warp again. Even if they won this last fight and put the ship into drydock for repairs, it would cost too much to do everything that was needed.

"Shields are destroyed. Torpedoes impacting on all sides!" Rebi said.

"Continue firing!" Naomi called.

"I don't know how much more she can take" Azan said.

"CONTINUE FIRING!" Naomi yelled. The damage to them was great, but they kept on firing until they were unable to do so. Minutes passed and ships were hit by the fire from the platforms, but the fleet gave as good as it got. "See if you can get any ships over here to assi-" she was thrown to the floor as a mighty explosion ripped all over the saucer section. The console on the bridge overloaded and burst into flames, smoke drifted around and nearly everybody was either killed or knocked unconscious.

"Forward weapons are down!" Azan said. "We can't fire" he added.

"The last platform is coming online – ready to fire" Mezoti reported.

"Target?" asked Naomi.

"North America" Mezoti replied. "Impact point is our home, and then wipe out most of the Eastern Seaboard. Nai… there's no one else close enough to stop it" and the friends looked at each other at the realisation of what had to be done. Naomi looked at the flickering viewscreen which was showing the platform glowing with energy at the phaser emitters, closed her eyes in grim understanding and calmly took her place as Captain and Commanding Officer of the _USS Voyager_.

"All power to engines. Give me ramming speed"

"Aye, Captain" Azan's voice was strangely emotional as he complied with the order. _Voyager_'s impulse engines blazed with power as every last atom was put into them, and she set off to destroy the target. The engines were overheating quickly, but there was no point regulating the temperature as there would be no more repairs made to the ship after this. The platform got bigger in the screen as they drew ever closer, and it was clear they would just make it before it rained death and destruction below.

"It was an honour serving with you" Naomi looked at her friends in turn as they stood by her in the centre of the bridge. She put an arm around her wife and pulled her close. "Don't look honey…" and the abandoned science station gave a weak bleep then failed as it attempted to alert them to a ship coming out of warp.

"Apollo _to _Voyager. _We've monitored the situation – hold on to your hats_" and she unleashed the full potential of her weapons ability. Torpedo after torpedo flew out of _Apollo_'s forward launchers and struck the platform as it began to fire. It exploded and _Voyager_ flew right into the cloud of fire, flames and exploding weaponry and came out the other side with her gaping wounds showing more clearly now.

"The last platform has been destroyed" Azan said, going back to his station. "We are being hailed"

"On screen"

"_Captain Wildman_" the flickering viewscreen showed a man in a Captain's uniform. "_I am Captain Lefcourt of the _USS Apollo_. We are on route to your location with as many medical personnel as we can carry. We should be with you within ten minutes. Understand that you have damaged vessels among you_"

"That is a bit of an understatement" said Naomi.

"_We'll have tugs and teams of shuttles tow those cases to Utopia at once_" Lefcourt said. "_Sensors show that you have massive damage to _Voyager_. Do you require assistance and a tow_?" Naomi looked around at her demolished bridge and felt pride that the ship had not failed them until the very end when her mission was over and done with.

"Negative, Captain. We can manoeuvre. Attend to those ships in greater need then us. Wildman out" and the man left the screen.

"We won…" Azan said.

"No we didn't… What we achieved was a tactical achievement. Too many people on both sides had to die first" Naomi shook her head. "Damage report"

"Damage to all systems" Azan said. "Life support is functional as are sublight engines. I'm reading red lines all along _Voyager_'s lateral structure. She'll never warp again" he finished regretfully. There was silence on the bridge at the news their ship would never again jump to warp. She'd be forever confined to one system on impulse.

"Message coming in from Starfleet Command. They say we are to put in to Utopia Planetia for scrapping" Rebi said.

"Your orders?" Mezoti asked quietly.

"Stand down to cruise mode, bring the ship about to a heading of 180 mark 000, all ahead slow and assume a standard orbit" Naomi said, and _Voyager_ flew unmolested and unchallenged by any enemies.

# # # # #

It had been four months since the final battle, and that time had been spent in debriefings and report making of everything that had happened. There had been an inquiry into the loss of the _Honour_, and Icheb had come out of it with a commendation for saving the lives of others, protecting the flagship of the fleet and upholding the highest traditions of the service. This may or may not have been because Naomi and Mezoti had appeared in full dress uniforms with medals at every meeting. Naomi, Mezoti and those who had supported Naomi during the fight were aquitted of any and all charges and commended for their devotion to the Federation and that their actions were within the highest traditions of service. Also given medals and promotions were the crew of the _USS Emaila_ under the command of Captain Oskar Schindler who had taken on as many prisoners as the _Galaxy_ class ship could hold and then kept them out of the reach of Section 31.

Those ships that could be repaired were given temporary repairs and dispersed to other shipyards for full completion. The rest were scrapped at Utopia Planetia or where they had been lost. _Voyager_ had remained in orbit for a fortnight before she was moved to San Francisco Yards for some repairs. Her frames were strengthened for a landing in the grounds of Starfleet Academy where she would become a ground based museum for anybody who wanted to see her. The group had taken _Voyager_ on one last trip to lay a wreath and marker buoy at the site of the _Honour_'s last battle site. On her way back to Earth and her final resting place, she was manned not just by Naomi, Mezoti, Azan and Rebi, but also by a crew made up of Admirals and the senior most Captains in the fleet. They had given up their rank to serve under Naomi on _Voyager_'s final cruise. Unless you used sensors to take a good look at her, you would have thought the ship was in a good state of repair.

"We are being hailed" Azan said. "Audio only"

"Open a channel" Naomi said.

"Voyager_, this is Earthport Orbital Control_" came the voice of an unseen woman.

"Go ahead, Control" Naomi said.

"_Be advised that you are cleared for landing directly at Starfleet Academy_" the voice said.

"Acknowledged" Naomi said.

"_All craft have been warned off of your approach and entry vector. Traffic Information: Media shuttles and flitters operating on both sides of your approach vector. They will keep well clear at all times_"

"Understood, Control"

"_Smooth sailing_, Voyager_, and happy landings_. _Control out_"

"Mr Torel, engage landing systems" Naomi said.

"Aye, Captain" Torel was a Vulcan and a Fleet Admiral whom had been taken captive by Section 31 while he slept. He was not a typical Vulcan as he ate meat, drank alcohol, gambled and was not bothered to hide his emotions like most of his people. "Landing system on standby" he said.

"Understood" Naomi replied. "Engineering, standby on atmospheric thrusters" she ordered.

"Aye" a captain replied.

"Helm, put us on our entry interface. Tactical, modulate shielding for atmospheric operation" Naomi looked over at another Admiral who worked the console like he had done so for a long time.

"We are in our entry window. Estimate landing in seven minutes" Torel announced and Naomi nodded in acknowledgment.

"Would you like to hear what is being said about us?" asked Mezoti.

"Put it up on the screen" Naomi agreed, and they watched different media channels showing _Voyager_'s descent through the atmosphere. The ship hardly shook as it slipped through the skies, and soon they had slipped through the main part of the landing.

"Getting a lot of hails" said Mezoti. "Using that automatic program to respond to most of them" she added.

"Approaching landing zone" Torel said. Down in Engineering, a gaggle of Admirals and Captains mothered over the systems.

"Shall I lower the legs?" asked Rebi, and Naomi decided to do a few more tricks for addition to the _Voyager_ legend.

"Helm, prepare to adjust your heading" she ordered. The ship swung round and away from the sprawling complex of buildings that made up Starfleet Headquarters and made its way to a spot over Golden Gate Park. Some of _Voyager_'s original crew had been buried here years ago, and Icheb's pitiful small amount of remains had been interred so he could rest with his former shipmates.

"He would have liked this" said Rebi quietly.

"I believe he would" Mezoti said, eyes brimming with tears.

"Helm, commence hover" Naomi ordered, then activated the shipwide frequency that she knew the public would be tuned into. "Attention all hands, this is the Captain. We are now hovering above the _Voyager_ Memorial. This ship will now observe a two minute silence in remembrance of those lives lost" and she rose from her seat. Once Naomi had finished what she wanted to do, _Voyager_ went once around the bay area and then settled in to a gliding touchdown. All the time the rotating frequencies picked up some of the calls and channels showing her stately arrival.

"Voyager_, this is American 137… my god are you beautiful_…" the pilot of the shuttle said.

"American 137 from _USS Voyager_. Be advised this vessel thanks you for your compliment, and notes you aren't so bad looking yourself" Naomi said to the other craft. She watched the prepared landing ground coming towards them, and her mischievous side came out to play. "Mr Torel" she said, walking over to the helm, "I relieve you" and the Admiral vacated the seat. "Azan, put all power to the SIF and artificial gravity" she ordered.

"Sure thing" he beamed. The friends knew what Naomi was planning to do.

"Starfleet Command, this is _Voyager_ requesting a flyby"

"_Negative, _Voyager_, the pattern is full_" said a voice.

"Well better clear it then" she told the voice, and rocketed over the grounds whilst performing a victory roll to port and starboard. On the viewscreen they could see people burst into applause and cheering the ship as it performed a manoeuvre that was supposed to be impossible for a ship that size in an atmosphere. Naomi lined up the ship for landing and checked her console.

"All hands, this is the bridge" Rebi called on the shipwide. "Prepare for immediate landing" and with a touch of thrusters, the majestic starship lowered itself to the ground as if settling down for a sleep.

"Bridge to Engineering…" Naomi's voice cracked, and she had to take a few moments to compose herself. Her next words would be some of the most important of the ship's existence.

"_Engineering_" a woman called up in reply.

"Bridge to Engineering" Naomi took a breath. "This is the Captain. _Finished with engines_"

"_Understood_" said the voice, and Naomi felt _Voyager_ die and live on useful nothing but life support. The powerful warp core was lowered in output so it powered the lights, turbolifts, a number of compartments and the other few things part of the museum. Everybody disembarked from the ship and went about their assigned duties, and it was just the friends left on the bridge.

"Computer, how many crew persons are on _Voyager_?"

"_There are no crew members on board_" it replied. They all took one last look around the bridge and then stepped into turbolift S28 and walked off _Voyager_ for the final time.

# # # # #

The _USS Voyager_ landed for the final time on Stardate 63149 at Starfleet Headquarters. She would never ever fly again. Never feel the solar and interstellar winds on its hull. In her lifetime, she had been present during the most incredible things, taken part in life and death struggles, suffered damage that would have destroyed other ships… and each time brought her crew home. _Voyager_'s legacy, already high, would be raised to the same level as the many _Enterprise_'s that had served throughout recorded time. Some would say that the ship was haunted, and some would say that there are no such things as ghosts. Occasionally, things would move from one place to another. Or lights turn on and off when there was no command to do so. Sensor scans of the entire were inconclusive on the subject. Visitors to the ship often reported seeing figures walking around in different versions of the Starfleet uniform, speaking to one another as they went silently around the corridors. Sometimes the bridge would come to life when it was powered down, and other stations and locations would do that. My own opinion? Well, let us just say that I have seen things that nobody would ever have known about if those Children In Charge had not brought it home. Do ghosts exist? Yes, I believe they do. People may choose to think otherwise, or share in my belief. Ships that have been through as much as _Voyager_ always have echoes or remnants of those souls departed from this world. They wait until all of them can be brought together again, so that they may serve together for infinity. Icheb joined them in the next life, and I rest a little easier knowing that one day I will join him, my friends and the large family I once had. As for the vessel herself, she has earned her eternal slumber many times over, and it should be the duty of the next generation to care for her. She did so much for me that it is the least that I can do for her…

_Captain Naomi Wildman_

_Commanding Officer_

USS Voyager

NCC 74656

**A/N:**

**The final chapter in this fic, and part of the annual Christmas Bumper I give you!**

**Now then, who is for a sequel?**

_**Pixel**_


End file.
